Scale Bound
by Dhagon
Summary: I hadn't given much thought to an afterlife. Arrogance on my part. Maybe even hubris. So when I died and was reincarnated i seized my chance with both hands. Even if I did end up a lizardfolk. It wasn't what i would choose, but I'm determined to make the most of it. And in a world as dangerous as Faerun I'll need to play the long game. SI
1. Chosen

Chapter 1 Chosen

In my experience when people picture themselves reincarnating into a fantasy setting they usually think of it in terms of still being human. After all being human is all we know. It's normal to be comfortable with what they're familiar with.

Even when they aren't human they aren't too far removed. A near human race that emphasizes a trait or quality they prefer is chosen. Stout and hearty dwarves, wise and graceful elves, merry hobbits. Well halflings. A primordial scaled horror that was barely bipedal was not even on the list as far as I knew.

Of course it wasn't exactly my choice either.

I don't know how exactly Essylliss managed to get ahold of my soul. But the proof was in front of me. A massive lizard man sitting atop a circular ziggurat with countless worshipers surrounding it. While that would normally just convince me he was charismatic or delusional, I could literally feel the divinity radiating off of him.

And then of course there was the fact of my current form. While my head was sort of intact, well at least my face, the rest of me wasn't. My face was currently protruding from two foot yellow body that looked like a cross between a maggot and a caterpillar. A soul larva. I played and ran dnd games on a planar level way too often not to recognize the form.

Which didn't detract from the utter impossibility of my current circumstances. Dead, in front of a fictional deity.

In some ways I was disappointed. After all if I was Essylliss isn't even a human deity. What did the god of lizardfolk want with me? And then he told me.

Not with words. Images, thoughts, commands. Like burning needles stabbing into my brain.

In agony, I passed out.

 **Oooo - Ooo - Oo - O - oOo - O - oO - ooO - oooO**

When I woke I found myself trapped. Confined inside a tiny space that seemed to be filling up with water.

Screaming was the wrong response. I choked and thrashed. I had already breathed in some water.

Desperate I strained until I felt something give. Frantically I kicked over and over trying to break free.

Darkness was filling my vision when my foot smashed through. I clawed at the sides until I could twist around and shove my face through the hole. I rested a bit now that I wasn't drowning.

I was still trapped. And it wasn't water either. It was slimy and thick enough I couldn't see through it.

Taking a deep breath I twisted again and started clawing at the edges of the hole. Breaking pieces off to widen it. When my arms tired I turned so I could kick.

It was grueling. The container seemed to be made from some kind of reinforced ceramic. Something like adobe, but as smooth and even as porcelain. The walls were also over an inch thick.

It felt like hours. Breath. Rest. Claw. Kick.

When I finally broke free I was exhausted. I could barely muster the energy to swipe the film from my eyes. As I lay there I took in my surroundings.

Big.

It was like I was in Gulliver's travels. I was inside some kind of scaled up hut and everything was sized for beings dozens of times larger than I was.

A cooing sound drew my attention. A massive lizard woman was reaching towards me. I'm actually not sure how I know it's female. None of them have obvious sexual characteristics. Maybe souls are more attuned to gender.

Does that mean gender is as much a spiritual matter as physical?

I wonder if it's another god. It didn't radiate power the way Essyllis had.

Hands gentle despite their claws cradled and lifted me up. Maybe the lizardfolk gods are taking turns talking to me?

It wasn't until I was placed in her lap that I realized what was going on. Oh. Now I feel dumb.

As she fed me bits of fish I stare in fascination at the remains of the egg I had been inside. The nest was large and held dozens of eggs within. I was just the first to have hatched.

 **Oooo - Ooo - Oo - O - oOo - O - oO - ooO - oooO**

Over the next few days the female lizardfolk took care of me. Her name was Yesk and she was my mother. She was also one of the few remaining priests of Errylliss. And had been tasked to watch over me.

She was also the only surviving member of her tribe.

When the tribe had prayed to Essylliss for aid to make them flourish, I bet they didn't expect to be overrun by ogres. And definitely not to be raped by them.

Essylliss really is a bastard, cold-blooded in every sense of the word.

Sure they're going to get their wish. At least if I don't die in the attempt. But none of them will be around to see it. Yesk is the last survivor. The others didn't live long after laying the oversized eggs.

The first few months we actually ate the pickled remains of the rest of the tribe. Yesk talked about communal sharing and giving back to the community. All I could think about was prion poisoning though. Hopefully with magic it doesn't become an issue.

I learn at a voracious rate. While my clutch mates are learning their first words I start on my second language. Draconic was as easy to grasp as breathing. A half dozen languages soon follow.

I can tell I've been enhanced. Learning everything is just so much easier. I also seem to just be more. Faster. Stronger. Smarter. In all ways better than any of my siblings.

I also seemed to possess supernatural luck. A dire rat ambushed us once and it slipped just as it was lunging. My fumbling counter met it's swinging head to take out an eye. My next attack struck a weak spot, breaking it's spine.

I'm a bit ashamed it took me so long to realize what Essylliss had done. It just seemed so implausible that I kept looking for alternative explanations. In the end though Yesk confirmed it.

While Essylliss isn't powerful enough to create Chosen he does have the domain of lizardfolk. With such focused divine authority he had given me something better. He had refined me. Made me the epitome of my kind. He had made me a Paragon.

Sure it didn't have the nifty array of divine bonuses, but the overall template was much more powerful. In game terms I had massive boosts to pretty much everything. And I mean everything. The only real thing lacking is immortality. Which is actually good since being stuck as a newborn would have been horrible.

 **Oooo - Ooo - Oo - O - oOo - O - oO - ooO - oooO**

Yesk grinned in satisfaction as she watched her brood settle in for the night. She had been honored with just how much her deity had trusted her.

The future of lizardfolk.

Seducing the ogre and laying the resulting egg had been an ordeal. She had taken great delight in cutting his throat afterwards. And when she had been guided to the remains of a tribe conquered by ogres she had wasted no time in wiping them all out.

And now she was raising the offspring. She didn't hate them. She understood what Essylliss was attempting. Stealing the strength of other races to augment their own. It was a terrible gamble. But a necessary one.

The deity Semuanya had been gaining ground for generations. Worse Semuanya only advocated survival. He didn't care for making them better. As long as they existed he was satisfied. Under his rule lizardfolk were little better than particularly clever beasts.

Worse was it left her kind vulnerable to Sess'inek. Not even a god, but a greater demon. He had been converting lizardfolk with the same message. Strength and numbers. Nothing else matters. By breeding in the blood of demons he was tainting her entire race. Already it had started. Lizardkings ruled over her homeland of Kethid.

If she was successful that would all change. She was one of the most powerful servants of Essylliss in Faerun. As such she was able to summon other servants. With their aid she had been preparations to further augment her brood.

Materials weren't the only thing the servants were used for. Their other main use was tutoring. With nine hatchlings to take care of their aid was very useful. She was getting old and keeping up with them all took too much energy.

Of course little Adask had the opposite problem. He never ran off and had to be chased down. No he stayed nearby and absorbed everything she could teach him. He was frighteningly intelligent. Yesk was old for a lizardfolk, well past her fifth decade. A lifetime of experiences and she had largely exhausted it all weeks ago.

Now she left the tutoring to the servants and the occasional use of a divination spell. Many times it was like she wasn't even teaching him anything new, just reminding him and adding in a few extra details.

He was clearly meant to lead. Despite being born weeks early, he was already stronger and faster than his clutch mates. He had also given her suggestions that her god had agreed with if the spells she received were any indication.

Under his influence they had even left the swamp!

True they hadn't gone far, only a few miles south in the middle of nowhere. But they very safe. Not completely though as an alarm spell going off indicated.

Yesk made her way over to the gate. The walls were designed to funnel attacking creatures into a series of increasingly strong doors to buy time. She took the secret passage to get a look and laughed when she saw it was only a handful of hobgolbins along with a troll.

She carefully reached out with her magic and carved runes lit up along the walls. Lightning bolts lashed out, bouncing between the walls to strike through the entire group.

Smiling she made her way over to collect the troll. Since it was killed without using fire or acid it'd regenerate. And it'd make a nice change from the hydra meat they usually ate.

As Yesk dragged the body through the maze of stone walls she realized she could finally start building an actual castle. With a troll to provide an endless supply of skeletons she could properly staff the entire structure. Sure she couldn't control them all, but Adask had mentioned something about living turrets and isolated garrisons before. She should probably talk to him before she started building.


	2. Red Dawn

Chapter 2 Red Dawn

Deldagg Huldgrym, leader of the famed Bloodaxe mercenary company, scowled at the site before him. When he accepted the contract he thought they were exaggerating. After all who in the nine hells would build a full scale castle in the middle of nowhere?

Apparently the bloodly lizardfolk. Crazy blood-thirsty savages. How they managed to create such an obviously magical fortress was beyond him. Positively unnatural.

Cheating too. Not using good old fashioned work and skill. And all the bloody skeletons just made it more obvious the lizardfolk were using vile magics.

Should have known the contract was too good to be true. A thousand gold for a bare months work, more than triple their normal fee. At least they aren't alone.

Daggerford had sent a company of guards to help and the Dawnbringer Adventuring Company had volunteered. Volunteered! Bleeding mad to take work without seeing the gold. But then that's all adventurers. At least they were eager even if all their talk about crusades and purging was giving him a headache.

He kept watching through his spyglass as the rest of the men made camp. No point wasting lives by attacking tired. Even fresh it was going to be bad enough.

A half dozen walls circled a single large tower. The first wall was only twenty feet, but each following one was ten feet higher. Worse they were all dozens of feet apart, creating killing fields.

At least they didn't seem to have a proper military. They didn't have any guards and the gates were just wood. Otherwise he'd have turned around and marched back.

 **Oooo - Ooo - Oo - O - oOo - O - oO - ooO - oooO**

The initial assault went well and for a few moments Deldagg felt hopeful. The gate was pathetic, little more than a large door. Shields high his company marched forward.

His initial estimate was off. There was a full fifty feet between the walls. Odd since the gate was less than fifteen feet wide. Not that it mattered. What did matter was all the arrow slits he could see lining the walls. There must be hundreds of them!

They all started firing at the same time. A literal rain of arrows pouring into them. He snarled as his shield caught several. "Form up! Shield Wall!"

While annoying the arrows aren't a real danger. The majority of his Bloodaxes were dwarves and they all were wearing heavy armor designed for frontal assaults such as this. They pressed on.

Hugging one of the walls reduced the archers who could target them and kept them from being caught in a crossfire. He grudgingly admits whoever designed this place wasn't a complete idiot. The next gate was a full hundred feet off to the right. Forcing them to mach their way their under constant fire.

It didn't stop them though. He could already hear the clerics chanting and casting from inside his formation. Gradually the arrow fire slowed down.

A scream cause him to glance back, which was the only reason he saw it. And it was crazy enough he pause he actually chuckled. Idiot lizard. Jump into the middle of his men would he? Faster just to cut his own throat.

The lizard man, and it was definitely male, jumped off the wall holding two metal spears. Way too large for him too. And from it's gangly build not even full grown.

Then it flickered.

Damn he hated magic. Suddenly the lizard was a threat. He slammed into the middle of the formation like a meteor, impaling two people with his spears. Then he hurled himself into the middle of his men.

The damn thing moved like water. Oddly hypnotic flowing movements that were almost impossibly graceful. It was also incredibly deadly.

The thing acted like it could tell where everyone was and how they are about to attack. Every attack shattered shields and smashed through armor. Claws seemed to touch his men and they seemed to just come apart. Cut deep enough to bleed out in moments even when they didn't lose a body part.

One of his men staggered catching his attention. The arrows embedded in his shield were solid iron. They must weigh a ton. And at the rate they're firing them his men are going to be buried under just the weight of them.

Why hadn't the skeleton archers been taken out yet? Turning to glare he paled as he realized his situation. The lizard was targeting his clerics and they were all too busy trying to stop him to focus on the skeletons.

No choice then. He sounded his horn. "Retreat!"

Outside the walls wasn't much better. The Daggerford guards had been ambushed by a group of giant lizard men. Gutless cowards that they are they had broke. Only a half dozen of lizards routed fifty guards. Pathetic.

At least the lizards took him seriously. When they saw his company come out they all drank potions and took off faster than a horse.

Not that he would chase them. No. He took entirely too many losses. Time to retreat and regroup.

The shouts were what alerted him. The damn lizard had followed them. Not too close. Probably worried about friendly fire. But close enough to throw things at them. And it didn't miss.

Deldagg sighed in relief when the gates started closing again. His eyes widened when the massive iron spear flew through the shrinking gap. He didn't even have time to shout before it impaled him.

Never should have taken this contract. Entire damn place was a trap.

 **Oooo - Ooo - Oo - O - oOo - O - oO - ooO - oooO**

Tlinthar Regheriad slumped over in exhaustion. The retreat back to the town of Daggerford had been grueling. No one had wanted to stop though. No doubt all too many of them would have nightmares about the today. Those that had survived.

The Dawnbringers had taken horrendous losses. The demonic lizard thing had focused on them. Even ignoring others attacking it to keep another cleric from getting away.

While the Bloodaxes hadn't been too badly hurt, they had lost their leader. They were certainly tough. They hadn't paused, marching right past the town. The new leader had spat at the idea of spending even one night in the area.

Not that he could blame him. This was supposed to be a glorious fight. Hunting down and killing the mysterious necromancer and killing off all the raiding lizardfolk. Not a slaughter.

Tlinthar sighed. Where did we go wrong? He glared down at his holy symbol. Coward.

No one else had accused him yet. But he accused himself. He wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed, but the demon had been targeting everyone holding a holy symbol. He had dropped his. Sure he drew his sword, but he knew the truth. He had been hiding.

At least he wasn't injured anymore. As a paladin his healing talents were fairly minor, but they had been enough to close the jagged wounds those damned iron arrows had made. At least they weren't poisoned.

He could feel the flickering in the energies when he called upon them too. Lathander hadn't condemned him. Not entirely. But he wasn't pleased.

He easily ignored a small fight breaking out. It was the third so far. People were scared. Half the guards hadn't made it back. Between that, the Bloodaxes leaving and the almost complete destruction of the Dawnbringers no one felt safe.

When screams broke out though he forced himself to his feet. Bar fights can be ignored, but not riots. That could easily spiral out of control and burn down the town without guards to contain it.

When he made it out there wasn't any fighting. Just people panicking and fleeing in every direction. There was some fighting though. Just in the distance.

When Tlinthar finally made his way close enough to see he froze in horror. He recognized that reptilian form dancing between the town guardsman. It was the demon! It had followed them!

Worse it wasn't alone. A half dozen others were running around. Each one slower and clumsier, but much larger. They weren't even fighting together, just rampaging back and forth.

Seeing one tear a guard in half he didn't have any delusions about facing one himself. Still he couldn't bring himself to run away again. And suddenly one was heading towards him and he was out of time.

Tlinthar fled through the crowd. If he had any doubts he was being chased the rapidly approaching screams answered them. His sword, something he had been so proud of before, seemed so inadequate against something over ten feet tall.

The crowds were slowing him down too much. It wasn't going to be long before the thing caught up.

He darted into an inn, heading towards the back. He wasn't sure what he was looking for but had an idea when he reached the kitchen. It was reckless and possibly suicidal. It was also probably his best bet to survive.

He kicked the back door open even as he heard the front door smashed apart. He crouched down trying to slow his breathing as the footsteps grew louder.

Now!

He heaved, muscles screaming. The barrel of cooking oil poured over the hunched figure and he kicked over the lantern as he scrambled back.

He expected the figure to be scorched, giving him time to escape. Instead the figure burst into flames like it was made of kindling. The scream was devastating and left his head ringing.

He stared through the doorway as the figure swiftly burned down to ash. As he passed out Tlinthar felt a surge of warmth.

Lathander's approval.

 **Oooo - Ooo - Oo - O - oOo - O - oO - ooO - oooO**

Yesk grieved for the loss of one of her hatchlings. Worst of all it was partially her fault.

The druidic ritual to imbue them with the blessings of nature did make them significantly tougher. It also granted them a few minor powers over plants. Paired with the greenbound ritual they were completely worth the bargains she had to make with Silvanus. Even little Adask had agreed.

It still didn't change the fact that the same ritual had rendered her hatchlings vulnerable to fire. Their scales still looked like dark green plates of armor, but they were now closer to bark. The very fibers that reinforced their bodies made them burn so much faster.

And now they were reduced to nine. One of their brothers reduced to nothing more than ashes.

She regrets not being able to use a red dragon for the basis for the next enhancement ritual, but black dragons are all she had access too. Besides she had already spent enormous amounts of resources researching how to improve the alchemical ritual to also add in the black dragon's water breathing ability.

She'll just have to setting for crafting some magic items to protect them from fire. And maybe a few more items to help them. She had planned on waiting until they were older and better trained. But if they were already going to start fighting there was no point delaying.

At least they were now settling into their roles. Training them will be much faster now that they had clear goals. Their first taste of real combat and how dangerous it is should keep them focused.

At least little Adask isn't interested in following in her footsteps. Well, not so little anymore. Even if he is still the smallest of his clutch mates. Essylliss is very unlikely to have been happy to share his champion with another god. Especially one ranked so much higher than he is. Now all she needs to do is make sure to steer two of the ones ones wanting clerical training into druidic magic.

It should be fairly easy given the woodling template she already applied. Although they would likely benefit from the greenbound template as well.

No Adask was training as a monk of all things. He seemed to instinctively know how to get started, likely another blessing from Essylliss. His decision to shelter a few families of Sivs took care of the rest.

Yesk admitted to herself she had been pretty skeptical. At least until she had gotten to see him in action yesterday. Seeing him in combat had been mesmerizing.

It had made her arrogant. Letting them attack Daggerford was a mistake. She would have to do better. She wouldn't fail her quest.


	3. Advancing

Chapter 3 Advancing

I grunt and suppress a wince as I hit the ground. The damn wings are still throwing off my balance. While I appreciate just how invested Yesk is making up powerful the half-dragon template she recently added to most of us is taking some adjustment.

It was even worse considering I wasn't fully grown. New appendages on top of being in the middle of the awkward gangly teenager phase means I trip. A lot.

Which is why I'm training so furiously with the Sivs. Convincing Yesk to shelter them had been one of my better ideas. They had gone from hunted scavengers to devoted retainers remarkably easily. Especially since they had been the first ones to have the template rituals tested on.

While I had looked at them as test subjects and servants before I have a much better appreciation for them now. If it was one thing Daggerford had taught me, it was that numbers matter.

I was incredibly powerful. I was also limited in how fast I could kill my enemies. Outside of small groups I just couldn't be in enough places. I had grown careless. The death of my sibling reinforced the lesson. I can die if I'm careless and I want to avoid death.

Even if I end up in Errylliss' domain in the afterlife I wouldn't be happy. Soul larva are helpless and every other form souls take in the afterlife loses the bulk of their memories. I was going to need more than personal power.

While is why while both the druid trainees took the greenbound template from my group, I became a half dragon. All the Sivs had taken greenbound and truthfully I was tempted too as well. The serenity granted from becoming closer to nature made the monk training much easier. In the end though I wanted magic. Only magic would allow me to generate the numbers I need. And dragon blood will grant me access to it.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I was a bit sad that I was going to be alone in both my career paths. My siblings found training to be a monk hard. The discipline needed didn't come to them naturally. Paradoxically they were intimidated at how quickly I learned and didn't want to be horribly overshadowed.

And arcane magic wasn't even an option for any of us originally. Even now that it is possible they had all found the combat roles they were comfortable in and no inclination to switch.

A secure shelter and ample food that allowed them to specialize. Instead of all of us being forced to hunt and possess considerable wilderness lore my clutch mates took on more exotic roles.

Most of them took to divine magic. Raxl and Ocuugi were being trained as clerics, following in Yesk's footsteps. Jursa, Irsiros and Hess were training as druids due to some kind of deal Yesk had made. Since they were training to support me I didn't mind. Besides druidic magic can be very powerful.

The rest trained with weapons. Kodrih and Thriz took to spear and shield fighting. They eagerly absorbed everything I could remember about phalanx's and shield walls. They were going to be the obvious tanks for the group.

Bhaoozk, with his explosive temper, was much harder to train. While his ability to train his rage made him a natural barbarian the problem was endurance. And after losing a sibling there was no way I was going to be able to steer him in another direction. Not being able to maintain his rage war a problem although I had some ideas on how to fix that eventually.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Yesk had definitely gotten paranoid about us. Besides the templates she had also summoned numerous outsiders to train us. She was also summoning more to collect the items she needed to craft the magic items she wanted to equip us with. The sheer number of summoning and deals she made was reckless. As I watched her continue I made my decision.

I wasn't willing to risk losing everything by drawing too much attention. So we were moving.

Scouting sections of the Lizard Marsh was fairly easy for us since we had wings. We could fly high overhead and take our time looking over areas. Since I was so much faster I made a number of solo runs deep into the swamp.

The layout of the swamp wasn't what I expected. Small islands of various sizes were divided by countless small slow moving streams. Seeing how I needed numbers and how well Yesk had raised my clutch I decided to expand.

It was surprisingly easy. Five hundred square miles sounds like a lot. But when you can maintain a flight speed of 24 miles per hour it only takes an hour or two to cross the entire swamp. I make sure to carefully map out every lizardfolk camp I find.

I bring my siblings along for the assaults. We drop from the sky like meteors. Just before I land I flare my wings, stalling for a second. In that moment I lash out, striking with every appendage I had. All four of my targets crumple to the ground.

I'm vaguely aware of my siblings landing even as I charge into the next group. A jump, twist and I kick out shattering a shield and the arm holding it. My tail snaps a neck snaps his neck even as my hands cut two throats. My wings flash out, casually deflecting a spear and throwing the warrior back. And suddenly I'm left standing on top of a pile of groaning bodies.

There isn't any other large groups so I just make sure none of my siblings are in danger. The camp wasn't very large so it only takes another minute to finish off everyone. The only survivors are a group of females we intend to take captive.

Each of us grabs one, although I take two. Given the weakest of us had a strength score well in the thirties we easily fly off while carrying them. Not that we had to carry them far.

Yesk was already hard at work creating walls of stone to build our new base. We protect her while she pretty much exhausts herself each day working on the compound, easily throwing back the few raids that occur. Afterwards we spiral outwards wiping out every lizardfolk camp we can find while Yesk continues expanding the defenses and the Siv start transporting everything from the old compound.

With the largest camps destroyed I head east. We need an ogre for the breeding program and I'm much faster alone.

It takes some time even with Yesk's divination amulet to guide me. It probably didn't help I was picky. I was only going to be able to bring back a single ogre. I wanted the most impressive specimen I could get.

It took way too long. I was gone almost an entire week tracking some ogres down. The results were well worth it though. It took me venturing into the High Moors, but I found an entire tribe of ogres.

Time to make an impression. I fold my wings and dive. I aim for the largest ogre. He'll be the chieftain.

I decide to show off so at the last second I angle my wings so I can land on my feet. He barely even started to react when I crouched down, grabbed his head and heaved.

With a wet tearing sound I tear his head off. Even as the body crashes to the ground I hold the head above me and bellow. "You all serve me!"

I aim at the nearest ogre who's holding a weapon. The head slams into him and I follow instantly. Even as he staggers back I dash forwards. My shoulder catches him in the stomach and he folds over my crouched form. I push. He folds over me, blocking two other strikes.

I turn and my hands snap out. I catch the extended arms even as they hit the ogre I'm under. I pull. Twist and heave. The two ogres I grabbed and the one I rammed all go flying.

Nap of my wings and I'm lunging at the next ogre. I punch through his armor. As I spin to dodge another blow I flick the handful of intestines I had grabbed into his face. A hop and twist gives me enough momentum to cave in the chest of another ogre with a kick.

My tail wraps around the blinded ogre, choking him. A roar catches my attention and I see an ogre with a spear charging me. I dodge back and toss the ogre I'm choking. The move breaks his neck even as he's impaled on the spear. Before he could drop it I hurdle over the body. My feet grasp his shoulders as my hands slam onto either side of his helmet. I tear his head off.

When I flip off I'm disappointed to see the rest of the tribe all kneeling on the ground. My blood was pumping and I wanted to keep fighting.

I take a few moments to calm myself. It'd be horrible waste of time to kill them all after I spent so much time looking for them.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

If I thought finding ogres took forever, bringing them back was worse. The ogres were a full tribe so moved slowly. While I had only killed five of them. Two others were too wounded too keep up so I killed them as well. Which still left me with a dozen ogres, even if most of them were children.

Without large stockpiles or the numbers to hunt I was forced to feed them. I also had to protect them. With only three adults and one of them injured the various bandits and monsters could easily kill them all.

Thankfully my two problems solve each other. At least mostly. I make sure to scout ahead each day and as well as all around. I kill everything I come across. Which is mainly orcs, but includes a few elves and barbarians. Then I just feed everything to the ogres.

Despite all the food I provided the ogres did not flourish. I pushed them hard on the march back. I even had them march all night to bypass Daggerford and it's patrols.

In my absence Yesk had finished the compound. Even better she had added all the extras I had asked for. The base was now a massive compound that stretched across multiple islands. It was also divided up into several relatively isolated areas.

One was being used by Yesk and my siblings and another held the Siv families that served us. The captured lizardfolk were housed in another along with a number of eggs and young that had been collected.

Several sections were still empty and I quickly settled the ogres in one of them. With unlimited hydra meat available they should easily flourish.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Over the next few years I threw myself into my arcane studies. Demons, naga and other summoned servants all tutored me. Sorcery was unlike any portrayal in any of the game editions. Instead it was a lot like preparing for a math test and dance recital at the same time.

Molding the arcane energy always felt just a bit unnatural. Enough so that mastering a particular spell took enormous amounts of practice. I could duplicate nearly any spell I remembered but they much closer to very slow rituals.

Quite possibly due to my mathematical and scientific bent in my past life I created formulas and records for every ritual I managed to create. The majority was based on what I 'knew' would work from my gaming experience.

Sure it may take me anywhere from a several minutes to an hour to complete a ritual, but it vastly increased my options. The majority of the time I let my instincts guide me. My luck seemed to hold true and it wasn't long before I had what I felt was a decent sized private arcane library.

Sadly it was not one that anyone else would find useful. A few naga eggs had been collected by summons and while they were natural sorcerers all of us seemed to have unique methods of wielding our magic. Only the most basic of concepts would be adapted, which meant outside of brainstorming ideas I didn't gain much.

Still at least I now have fellow arcane casters to talk with. And it wasn't like I was bored. It turns out the lizardfolk had ruthlessly kept the local dinosaur population in check. Without them their numbers exploded.

Worse they had kept the worst of them from growing large enough to pose a real threat. Barely a year after setting up we saw the emergence of massive spinosaurs. While it's hunched posture meant it rarely stood higher than twenty feet, they were easily fifty feet long.

Hunting them was exhilarating. There was nothing like the rush of killing something that massive. In some ways it reminded of the giant bosses from games I used to play. Not even with my boosts could to take one on head on. So I used fancy maneuvers and targeted weak points, wearing them down.

And the rush I received whenever I killed one was positively addicting. It was more than the satisfaction of winning. More than adrenaline. It was power. Power pouring into me. Pure potential.

I found I could channel the energy towards strengthening my magic. No doubt it had other uses, but none I considered more worthwhile. My first love was magic and I wanted as much of it as possible. If this is what adventurers feel when they level up I can see why so many take up such a risky career.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Despite how powerful I grew I mastered very few spells. The sheer amount of effort and more importantly time involve just didn't seem worth it. Instead I invested it all into my rapidly rowing library. There were a number of second edition spells I wanted and with Yesk's willingness to craft I could preserve them all.

In particular I played with metamagic. While second edition doesn't actually have metamagic I still remember the rules well enough since I almost always played casters before.

I didn't care about the mundane static bonuses. I was interested in the exotic effects that allowed for terrifying end results when taken to logical extremes. Like how a pair of explosive lightning bolts would slam into and carry along everyone in their path. Or a persistent creeping cold eventually deals thousands of damage if not countered.

The one I was most interested in though was fell energy. The spinosaurs had given me ideas for giant undead war machines. Skeletons were just too fragile though. A fell energy enhanced desecrate would bolster it's toughness nicely.

In the end I was forced to approach Yesk to help. I needed her aid and more importantly the aid of Essyllis to see exactly just how to adjust the energy. It was fascinating and I ended up spending a lot more time on necromancy than I had planned.

Watching how the energy smoothly divided into delicate strands and literally wove themselves into the bones was inspiring. I couldn't quite manage it myself so I cheated. A focus made from the crystallized heart of a blood fiend gave me the boost needed to replicate the technique.

Even better my research led me into a few dead ends that still provided a similar if lesser boost. The resulting skeletons were amazing. They easily withstood three times as much damage as unenhanced versions.

Now I just need to become powerful enough to actually animate a spinosaurus.

All the experiments took resources. Worse they took onyx, which is not a resource found in swamps. Which is how I ended up tempted into going on an adventure.


	4. Anauroch

Chapter 4 Anauroch

When I first heard about the opportunity it sounded too good to be true. Magic and resources just available for any descendant of the Sarruhk to take. Then I found the catch. It was located in the Anauroch desert.

That was one hell of a catch.

To understand just how bad that was you have to realize lizardfolk live primarily in swamps. They've adapted for incredibly water rich environments. And after the alchemical alterations we can even live underwater.

None of which helps in a desert. Worse the Anauroch is massive. It's the Faerun equivalent to the Sahara from my old world. Hundreds of miles across and growing.

Worse it isn't even natural. It's the product of type of magic that's calls lifeleech. Sure in game terms there was never any actual effects, but it still doesn't sound good. And that isn't even considering what cast the lifeleech.

Phaerimm are a race. Natural sorcerors. Incredibly powerful with their own unique method of casting which is very powerful. I'd admire them if they were also horrifically hostile to just about everything.

And their entire race is trapped underneath the desert.

At least I won't have to deal with them directly since they don't break out until third edition.

Truthfully I wanted to wait until I was more powerful and more importantly better geared. I didn't have that option though because of this constant feeling that I was running out of time. Which wouldn't bother me if I knew why I felt that way.

It was perhaps the worst part of being reincarnated. Essylliss hadn't just added to me. He had also removed things from me. Dates in particular.

I was always fairly bad about keeping track of timelines and dates. However I usually remembered at least the more important ones. Now I can't remember any of them. I can't even remember the order they happen in.

Sure i've pieced together a very crude timeline, but it's full of holes and more importantly its more a collection of mini-timelines. And I have no idea how they relate to each other.

So I work with what I have.

There's a Godswar coming. It's bad and changes not only the nature of divinity, but the Weave of magic. Many spells and item schematics from second edition stop working at that point.

Given the lack of a recorded Time of Troubles and my experiments with magic I'm sometime before the Godswar happens. Which provided me a number of opportunities as long as I can advance fast enough. Of course allocating resources is made harder when I don't have a time frame.

Third edition follows the Godswar. The Weave changes and crafting magic items becomes much more expensive. It also becomes much more customizable as a trade off.

Sometime after that fourth edition triggers. This is caused by the death of Mystra. Again. And through stupid events as well.

Fourth edition is apocalyptic. Most of the dimensions are destroyed. Most of the deities are severely weakened. Active magic items sometimes absorbed Blue Flame, which are sort of pieces of Mystra's shredded soul.

I don't remember seeing any crafting rules. It was sort of handwaved away. Not sure if the rules changed. The items did seem much more limited than what was possible in third edition though. Lost knowledge? Stricter rules on what's possible?

I don't know what triggers fifth edition but I don't recall any crafting rules. It's probably safe to assume the rules change again though.

I know a number of events that occur within each edition, but only because I have a habit of applying stats to what I read. My friends call it being obsessive and picky, but it's coming in useful right now.

I can sort of understand why Essylliss removed the dates. Gods can not only pluck information from mortal minds, they can sense plans that affect them. The details are vague, but I'm assuming me knowing the exact dates means all the other gods due too. And that would negate my valuable foreknowledge.

Doesn't mean I have to like it though. Especially when it ends up with me planning an expedition to the Anauroch.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

When Jursa heard they were venturing into the desert she was terrified. Without wings she wouldn't be able to keep up. And even if she could the desert would be worse for her than any of the others besides her sister isiros. As greenbound they would weaken that far removed from nature.

Still she was determined to help as much as she could. She had been exhausting herself recently, casting goodberry and a few other long term spells. She also resolved to train herself harder. She never wanted to be left behind again.

At least had something to keep them occupied. Adahsk had already arranged for the next generation of their kind. A few of the chosen mothers had perished without her spells to aid them laying the eggs, but there were always more.

She could understand why he held their original race in such contempt. Capturing, taming and breeding them. The lizardfolk just accepted it. Honestly it was as if they were particularly clever animals rather than people.

Thankfully even if greater numbers they wouldn't despoil the land the way most other intelligent races did. The woodling template made them naturally more comfortable in a more natural surrounding. It granted a serenity of spirit that made it easier to commune with nature. The greenbound template had just strengthened that bond.

Upon arriving at the nursery she found her sister already feeding the hatchlings. "Couldn't sleep either?"

"No. I worry for the rest of our clutch. Stranded so far in the middle of such horrific territory. If Mother Yesk hadn't received that vision I'd still be trying to keep them from going."

isiros snorted. "You worry too much. Adahsk is with them. There is nothing to worry about. I'm just glad I didn't have to go with them."

Jursa sighed. And that was the largest difference between them. While she could admit Adahsk was definitely their leader she didn't consider him perfect. She wasn't even sure why Isiros hadn't decided to become a cleric instead of a druid with how strong her faith was.

And that was why she was a druid. She just didn't feel comfortable putting all her trust in someone else. As amazing as their brother is she can still remember the screams of her dying sister. Communing with the land had helped her accept the loss. She still worried for the rest though.

Isiros rolled eyes at the lack of reply. They had argued a few times but both were firm in their beliefs. Not even the twisted experiments Adahsk had set up bothered her. She wasn't even sure why Jursa cared. All the experiments were conducted on artificially created populations. It wasn't like most of them would survive in the wild.

Even Adahsk's use of necromancy wasn't that bad. He kept his creations tightly confined and even made sure to destroy all of his experiments. Invasive species had more impact than he did. Besides they were all themselves a hostile invasive species from a certain point of view.

Really. It was just natural selection at work. As long as everything balances in the end what did it matter. Jursa would be a lot more powerful if she just understood that. Although it probably explains why she's so good dealing with the hatchlings and experiments.

She wasn't sure why Jursa was so against the projects. Steel wasn't natural and they all wielded weapons made from it. Besides there was something deliciously ironic over using arcane magic to protect magic.

Isiros had worked closely with Adahsk on that project. The careful injections of hydra blood into the naga eggs creating their version of a nagahydra. The resulting four headed creatures were incredibly gifted magically.

They were also trained strenuously. Their natural talent at sorcery molded into a carefully chosen selection of spells. Despite being little more than a year old they were progressing incredibly fast. Adahsk would be so proud!

At least the Siv were finally breeding rapidly. While she understood the state of contentment their templated imparted they needed the numbers. She had heard more than once Adahsk mention quantity has a quality of it's own.

Besides it wasn't like they couldn't afford it. Given how rapidly a hydra regrows heads and necks they'd need an enormous population base to outpace it's regeneration.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Hess considers the idea that she might be cursed. Sure her connection to nature wasn't as strong as her sisters, but she made up with it with her skill in traps and weapons. She had even learned how to hunt outside the swamp.

However nothing had prepared her for the Anauroch.

It was so dry. The air seemed to suck the moisture out of her. And the ground was either baked hard or just loose sand. Dead and so so wrong.

It unnerved her enough that she didn't even protest the Adahsk's idea of summoning a few minor devils. Even their twisted energies still registered as alive. Just corrupted.

Which made her feel dirty. And in dire need of a very long bath. Which she would have needed anyway. And at least the spinagons can teleport them miles at a time. She can put up with being uncomfortably close to one for a few hours to get out of weeks of being covered in sand.

At least the elf provided a welcome break.

It had been dying and half mad when they found it. She had watched as Adahsk had carefully crafted a weak illusion and subtle charm spell to befriend the elf and interrogate him. It was like watching him tame a vicious animal in minutes. Very impressive.

And while a bit stringy the elf was delicious. Adahsk relayed what he learned as they ate.

The elf, a bladesinger from Evereska, confirmed they were on the right trail. He was part of the famed Tomb Guard, elven protectors of ancient tombs they consider important. He was also the only survivor of the patrol in that area.

Which is good news except for the fact that a patrol was sent in the first place.

We traveled even faster. The devils teleporting nearly constantly. We were all worried about what we would find.

It turns out our destination isn't a tomb. At least not anymore. It's a full on warzone.

A massive fortified camp was built right on top of the tomb. It was inhabited by a what looks like a type of lizardfolk. Although they don't seem to mind all the sand or lack of water. They're surrounded by a bunch of little camps of humans and not in a friendly way.

Which I normally would be all for attacking, but that's a lot of hostiles. And no cover or places to put traps or well anything really. And of course Bhaoozk wants to charge in there.

While I can see Adahsk surviving that. I definitely don't see the rest of us doing so.

When the imp goes invisible and teleports us into the tomb I'm pretty happy. Not so happy when we get jumped almost immediately. At least the imp manages to dump us out of the portable hole before biting it.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Kodrih grunts and suppresses a wince as he's grazed by another javelin. When Adahsk had told him and Thriz to hold the entrance he was excited. He had thought. This was it! He could finally prove himself to his older brother.

He had rushed forward to protect the door. Lessons about defensive positions placing him just behind it to limit attackers.

He figured this was what Adahsk had trained them for. All that work finally being paid off. They hadn't had much of a chance in Daggerford since they had been the attackers. He still hated how one of his siblings had died there.

The sandy lizards, Adahsk had called them Laerti, charged in. They didn't have any armor and most used skinny curves swords or javelins.

Kodrih had locked his shield with Thriz and braced themselves. It was a mess. The Laerti fell easily. They didnt stop though. They were like rabid animals, crawling over the bodies of the slain to try and get closer.

And they did. Wave by wave they inched closer. To keep from being buried they had to retreat. And once they were away from the door they were pushed back even faster.

Just like with the cut, Kodrih didn't even twitch as he felt the soothing energy of a cure spell flowing over him. He didn't have time. It was taking everything he had to keep from being overrun. Keep pace with his shield brother.

Stab, stab, stab. And just before one can get too close step back. Stab across to protect his brother. Trust Thriz to do the same. And then back to stabbing.

"Down!" Kodrih didn't question Adahsk's yell. He dropped to the ground.

Almost immediately he saw several skeletons hurtle over him, slamming into the horde of Laerti. Before he could scramble up again he was yanked backwards. He hit the ground hard enough to knock the air out of him. He watched in horror as one Laerti gets past the skeletons and lunges at him.

Then a wall of solid ice forms between him. He hears the crunch as it slams into the wall before allowing himself to collapse.

That had been horrible. Despite all of his practice and training they had almost been overwhelmed several times. Worse they were exhausted. Sure they had been incredibly effective, but all he could think about was just how close it was.

The next generation of their kind was being raised right now. Surely not all of them were going to be clerics and druids? Maybe he and Thriz can recruit a few and train them up. Being able to rotate out if one of them dies or even trips... hell just to catch their breath. Yeah they are definitely going recruiting.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Ocuugi took inventory of her remaining spells. She tried to hide how her hands shook. That hadn't been anything like Daggerford. Until the loss of her sister it had been fun.

This... had been horrific.

The Laerti had swarmed like ants. Relentless, merciless.

Mindless.

Was that what all the scaled races had been reduced too?

The thought bothered her more than a little. Was that what she could have been?

A lot of communication between lizardfolk was instinctual. They could convey a host of information through body language and scent. Adahsk was the one who seemed to always insist everyone speak. And not just speak, but speak fluently.

Was this what mother Yesk was always preaching about? Why she had held Adahsk up so high? If so she owed her an apology. She had nodded along with the lectures. But she hadn't realized. Hadn't understood. Not really. Not until now.

Adahsk really was their champion. Always pushing them to be more. To never let them settle. To be better.

And Essylliss really cared to provide such a champion for them. She now understood why Yesk had said just survival wasn't enough.

Looking over at Raxl she could see the same conviction in his eyes. They would support Adahsk and lizardfolk would rise as never before. Even if they had to kill and replace every single one of them to do so.


	5. Tomb of Hsssthak

Chapter 5 The Tomb of Hsssthak

Bhaoozk knew he wasn't the brightest. In fact he was probably the dumbest in his family. Still that didn't mean too much since they had big brother Adahsk. Sure he wasn't really his big brother. He stood over a foot taller than Adahsk now. It didn't mean he didn't still look up to him.

Adahsk made them all look dumb. He was _smart_. If he said something, even if it sounded crazy or didn't make any sense, it was true. Asking mother Yesk usually just ended up with her smacking you and telling you to listen to Adahsk.

The death of their sister bothered the others. But he knew the truth. She didn't die because Adahsk made a mistake. She died because she didn't follow Adahsk. She ran off and left the group. Of course she died. Adahsk had told everyone not to wander off.

He hated the desert. It made him constantly itchy. They had only been there for an hour and he already wanted to leave. Not that he would.

Still he was very glad when they went underground. The fact that they ended up in a large sunken pit filled with bodies didn't bother him. And the slender mummies just gave him a target.

He charged the first mummy, roaring out a challenge. His vision tinged red as he started swinging his axe at it as hard as he could. He didn't have any fancy tricks. He didn't have spells. But he was strong.

His blows knocked both of the mummies off their feet. They didn't hurt them though. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do since it looks like everyone else was busy. Thriz looked like he might want some help.

Adahsk gestured for him to stay though. Then Raxl cast something on his axe. His next swing cut off the arm the mummy was trying to punch him with. Bhaoozk grinned. He roared in triumph as he knocked the mummy down again and then cut off it's head.

The second mummy died just as easily. He stayed to guard when he saw the glowing symbols on the wall. He didn't know what they did so he was going to stay here, away from them.

Adahsk walked to the pile of Laerti bodies, congratulating him as he walked by. Instead of the regular very long time that he's used to, Adahsk only flicks his hands and mutters a few words. Then the bodies start standing up.

Not all of them and they look wrong. They're stiff and not breathing and it kind of looks like they're rotting really really fast. Not the bones though. And then they all charge past over to help Thriz.

Then it was back to waiting. A normally slow spell makes a wall of ice. Then another one makes one from stone. It got really dark and the symbols were even brighter now.

He was really glad when Adahsk pulled him back so they could make camp. He had been all stiff just sitting for hours while being carried. The fight had let him stretch out. Bhaoozk fell asleep the moment hid head landed on his pillow.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Rest had done everyone good. Maybe not me. But it wasn't like it needed it as little as I did. The few surviving skeletons were easily disabled the various symbols. They just walked up, ignoring whatever effect they were emitting, and chipped them away. Then I went exploring.

I was careful and made sure to use skeletons as miner canaries. But there was no way I was just going to sleep without exploring at least a bit.

The next room over held what looked like the tortured remains of an elven mage. Every bone looks like it had been broken and then bound in wire. Any flesh had long since rotted away. Even the robes, which very faintly seemed to glow, crumbled at my touch.

The surprise was the altar. It made sense. An altar to an evil deity improved any undead created nearby, especially when paired with a desecrate spell. It was the deity that stunned me when I identified it.

Araunshee.

The altar was dedicated to the goddess that turns into Lloth.

I quickly check the mummies, pulling back the wrappings. Even aged it was easy to see the skin wasn't the pitch black of drow.

Which meant they weren't drow. This really was all set up before the fall of Araunshee. Likely way before the Crown Wars, which are themselves ancient history. This guard post had been set up to contain what was deeper within. Just how old was this tomb?

The altar held a single item. A book. It was placed there as if someone had set it down, not like it belonged there. It was titled the Tome of Life Eternal. Inside was instructions on how to create Tomb Guardians. Reading the details they were a cross between mummies and liches.

Tomb Guardians were very similar to mummies. They had all the same abilities aside from the supernatural rotting power, but lacking vulnerability to fire. The main difference was they possessed canopic jars holding their organs. The jars acted in a similar manner to a liches phylactery, bringing the mummy back after a few hours.

I immediately smashed every jar in the room. I also felt completely justified in exploring now.

Reading on I can see why Tomb Guardians had faded from common use. Sure they created powerful undead, but they had to be performed on a living subject. And it was more a template than a creature so you had to use highly skilled warriors for them to be worth it.

It also severed their ability to cast magic, although that might be deliberate. An attempt limit them to make them easier to control. After all they still have free will. They're just bound to stay close to their jars.

That wasn't all the information the Tome contained. Although deeper study will have to wait until we're back home. For now I have a dungeon to map.

Over the next few hours I map out quite a few twisted passages. I keep from entering any rooms though. I just wanted a better idea of the surroundings.

I spent most of my time within the catacombs. While it had been fairly thoroughly looted already I was still able to find quite a bit that had been overlooked. It was made much easier since all the bodies animated when my skeleton approached.

I was all set for a fighting retreat when the bodies began crumbling as soon as they stepped out of their alcoves. Even better the only spell traps that seemed to exist were all based around animating the dead.

I admit that had surprised me and not in a good way. My relieved laughter rang out. Which of course is when my siblings found me.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Raxl woke with a start. His senses were screaming at him. Without moving he listened careful. Aside from the muffled thuds from the Laerti trying to breech the wall of stone there wasn't much.

Still. Something was wrong. He got up to look around and that's when he realized. Adahsk was missing.

"Get up." Raxl's harsh whisper quickly roused the others. None of them were sleeping easily. "Adahsk is missing."

At the last comment everyone scrambled up. Everything was quickly packed away and when Hess discovered a set of tracks they all silently followed behind. No way were they going to let him leave them behind.

The torn apart bodies of a number of mummies reassured them. If Adahsk had been kidnapped he wouldn't have been fighting.

It seemed to take hours. Adahsk seemed to just be wandering around aimlessly. At least he seemed to be disabling all the traps he's come across. There were a number of recently shattered glyphs and symbols to show he had passed through.

The catacombs didn't bother them until it seems everything animated at once. Hundreds of bodies poured out of the alcoves in an attempt to bury them.

Raxl was about to order them to retreat when the wave of undead reached them. He braced his shield and... nothing.

His eyes winced as dust got in them and he could hear the rest of them coughing behind him. Everywhere he looked he could only see a new layer of fine sand on the ground. Occasionally a large bone jutted out, but even as he watched they crumbled into sand.

The sound of laughter drew their attention from the almost ambush. Hurrying down the passage they found Adahsk cheerfully looting the place. Given how there had been thousands of alcoves there was surprisingly little.

"Glad you made it. I found some rooms I want to check out." Adahsk didn't even have the decency to apologize. Thriz nudged him before he could say anything.

He sighed. He should have realized. It was always like this.

Adahsk led and they followed. At least as much as they could. He pretty much always ended up leaving them behind. It was irritating. Especially since Adahsk wasn't invincible. The first time he fought a spinosaurus he almost lost his arm! Granted he was fully healed within minutes, but it showed he could be hurt.

Grumbling about ungrateful champions he moved forward to help him loot.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Hssstak lay perfectly still as he observed the invades through the spells monitoring the complex. Ages ago he had volunteered to be mummified to protect this base and this was only the second time he had roused.

He wasn't sure how much time had past. The elves had torn down all the wards, including the preservation wards. He had restored what he could, but he was limited since he was working alone.

He wasn't willing to start moving just yet. Even he wasn't immune to the ravages of time. Just opening his eyes had caused part of the eyelid to fall apart. No doubt just as the elves had intended.

Cowards and thieves.

Now for the first time he felt hope. Intruders had once again entered what was now his tomb. But these were different. He could feel the blessings of the world serpent on them. If they proved worthy he would allow them to recover what was stored. When the elves had first assaulted this place he had feared his kind was extinct. It hadn't helped that only one of the elves had even recognized his race.

They hadn't answered any questions. Choosing instead to retreat and seal him away. Waiting until he rotted away before attempting to steal everything he protected. Not that they would have succeeded. He would destroy every item in the vaults before allowing them to be stolen.

At the thought of his treasure he resisted the urge to look over. When the elves had first stolen the Golden Skins of the World Serpent from his race he had worked tirelessly to recreate them. It was futile though. They had been the work of hundreds of mages containing the accumulated knowledge of several races. Unfortunately he had always been more focused on his racial magic. What little he knew outside that was pitiful in comparison.

When the complex had come under assault by elves centuries later he had feared they were after his work. He had destroyed much of it rather than let it be stolen.

Then he had felt his body weakening. He realized the elves plan immediately and sealed away as much as he could. Then he laid down in preparation for his last task. Safeguarding what was left in the hopes of a descendant finding him.

He couldn't just give everything to him. No. That wouldn't help at all. Only if he made his way past the tests and traps, survived against the guardians would he be worthy. After all he would then become the protector of his people's legacy. After all what use was a weak guardian?

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I ducked under yet another pair of massive boney jaws before kicking down. The sound of breaking bone drowned out my hiss of pain. The dark blue flames coating the tyrannosaurus rex skeleton burned cold as it leeched away some of my health.

I used my kick along with my wings to fly up to the ceiling. Turning I pushed off it to lunge back down, tumbling wildly through the air. I slammed into the skull with feet. Even as it shattered under me I pushed off again.

My tail snapped out, tripping another skeleton even as I slashed out, digging my way into another T-rex. When it collapsed around me, the flames going out with the destruction of the undead I looked around.

Everyone else seemed pretty good. There had been over a dozen of the skeletons originally. Forming out of the walls of the giant entrance hall.

It was easy to tell the place had been buried. The main doors were missing with a large pile of sand marking where they once stood.

I kept watch as the rest of the group carefully broke open the last of the columns to remove the gold circlet that was generation the skeletons. It had taken way too long to figure out part out and only a lucky miss by Bhaoozk's had revealed the secret.

If you included the elves this was the fourth such setup they had run across. There had been a massive bone pit that held a naga. If the naga was a hundred feet long and made completely of smaller bones flowing together. It had continuously absorbed bones from the pit to heal itself.

That fight had been exhausting. In the end I pretty much faced it alone. Pitting my fast healing against it's regeneration. The rest of the party occasionally assisted before retreating to rest and then try again.

I heal, but I can still get tired. It took two days to defeat it and only because I cheated. I don't know if symbols are supposed to be able to be moved but it was only idea I had. I had my skeletons tear out the blocks they were engraved on and just dumped them all in the pit.

The symbols animated enormous numbers of skeletons. The giant bone naga tore them apart, but more kept being created. And any skeleton that was destroyed crumbled into ash and small bone fragments. Eventually it ran out of bones and was trapped over a hundred feet below us.

I still killed it. There was no way I was going to leave something that powerful behind. A large rune etched diamond was buried deep inside. No doubt what had animated it.

In comparison to that the swarm of flameskulls were almost tame. Sure there were dozens of them, but flameskulls are pretty weak. We had a very nice relaxing curb-stomp of a fight.

Although they weren't exactly flameskulls. They acted the same. But they used dragon skulls instead of human. They also weren't limited to only fire. Some of them crackling with lightning or sizzled with acid. The frost variant was the oddest since it seemed to be armored in a sheath of ice.

They were more powerful, but that's still a relative measurement. All of us had leveled against the bone naga. We had also grown comfortable fighting as a group. Buffed and supporting each other we lured them into a trap and tore them all apart.

They were even more vulnerable since they relied on canopic jar. Only a single one, but still a point of weakness. The jars were buried, but it didn't take too long to find. That tome at the beginning was proving to be invaluable.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The prize at the end was not what I expected. We had been guided here by a vision. That and a promise of resources. And of course a deadline.

Arriving at the final chamber to find out a mummified Sarruhk was there, waiting you greet you? Way outside any expectations I had. It was a Sarruhk! One of the progenitor races. They had built empires before dragons even existed.

And he was waiting for me.

Damn. Essylliss really was stacking the deck in my favor.

I let Ocuugi and Raxl speak with him. This was close to a religious experience for them. They should make the most of it. Meanwhile I explored the room.

A pair of large shimmering doors catch my eye and I approached them carefully. They swing open when I draw near and peek into the left one. What I find is kind of disappointing.

Eggs. Lots and lots of delicate jewel like eggs. There wasn't any gold or jewelry either, just eggs.

Disappointed I check the other door. This was much better. While it doesn't contain treasure, it's clear it's a study. Better yet it holds a number of scrolls. A pair of them in particular draw my eye. They seem to radiate power.

"My finest creation." The whisper echoes across the room startling me. "And sadly my last."

I start to turn when I see something set into the wall. For a moment I have trouble even understanding what I'm seeing.

It's a rack. Not a normal one either. It's upright and made from iron and etched all over with glowing runes. It's obviously customized for the creature inside it. Which I don't recognize.

It's about four feet long and shaped like a cross between a weasel and a dog. It was covered all over in a very fine layer of gold scales and each of it's eight legs was practically welded into the rack frame.

'My finest work." The mummy sounded incredibly proud. "An aurumvorax gifted with essence of a gold dragon. Permanently secured in a manner to prevent it's passing. The frame stretches out the skin and both sustains and heals it after harvesting."

"It's a pity the elves disrupted so much that I could no longer make use of it. I would appreciate it if you took it with you. I'd be a shame for it to go to waste."

It bothered me somewhat that I wasn't bothered. The creature was probably innocent and here it was suffering for likely centuries if not longer. And all I could think about how incredibly useful this would be.


	6. Deals

Chapter 6 Deals

Leaving wasn't nearly as difficult as arriving. Summoning the same devil we quickly made multiple trips to empty out everything in the tomb. Afterwards I spent a few hours setting up a number of traps and luring Laerti into them in order to hand over as payment for services. It's convenient that devils like to be paid in souls.

Setting up wasn't difficult and proved to be everything promised. The eggs turned out to be gem scarabs. The magical beetles grow up to two feet long. They also eat metal, sand and meat. All easy enough to arrange.

Containing them was simple. An Augment Object and they no longer had a chance of burrowing through the magically reinforced walls of their pen.

The best part was that since they were insectile they were both primitive and hardy enough that I could use Haste on them. Haste, while normally a combat spell, has a side effect of aging it's target. Normally casting it on anyone not full grown has a chance of killing them.

But not the gem scarabs.

That alone would have made the trip worth it. The rack was, if anything, even more valuable. The creature was originally an aurumvorax, a creature whose flesh is laced with gold. The skin is also considered incredibly valuable, being beautiful and serving as naturally enchanted armor.

This one didn't have fur, but it's skin was even more magical. I was able to scribe spells onto scrolls of the skin incredibly easily. The flesh was also able to be removed and burned to harvest the gold within. Whatever Hssstak had done kept me from affecting the skeleton though. It was like a single artifact level item.

Studying the rack gave me ideas even if I still didn't understand all the magic in it. It was just so amazingly complicated. Like finger painting and suddenly being handed a Picasso.

The same could be said for the pair of scrolls I gathered. I'm not sure how, but after I read them I could feel the information in them nested in my mind. Each contained a powerful spell and I found that I could cast the weaker one as if I had mastered it. I knew the second spell as well even if I wasn't powerful enough to channel enough energy to cast it.

Sadly the process for creating those scrolls wasn't written anywhere in his notes. It would have been invaluable. At least I have the two new spells.

The first is Awaken Scaled One. It allow me to augment the intelligence of any naturally scaled being. Beasts become sapient and people become geniuses. The first use of it was on myself. I spent the next hour adjusting to how much faster I was thinking.

Its not hereditary so I can't uplift any species. Besides the intelligence boost is far too random for me to be comfortable with. And sadly the second spell Alter Form requires way too much energy for me to use.

Which is how I ended up really going adventuring.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Taking what I called the Devil Express we went back to the Anauroch. Despite how uncomfortable it was it also had one thing we really needed. Targets. We even took the greenbound this time.

The Laerti had assembled in massive numbers. I would have thought their city unsustainable, but it was still there and growing. I don't even know why they were there at this point. I had already looted the entire place. Maybe they were after some of the notes I had left behind? Whatever the reason I gave me a very juicy target.

The first time we returned we actually helped them out. Sure they didn't appreciate it, but we wiped out two of the Bedine camps and scared off the third. Of course turning around and attacking the camp may have something to do with that lack of gratitude.

The Laerti, for all their numbers and ferocity, were pathetic fighters. They were much more suited to ambushes and skirmishes. Assaulting us while we were in formation and prepared for them make their lack of skill even more obvious. The nine of us must have killed hundreds of Laerti before retreating.

We didn't even retreat far. Abusing the usefulness of my new resource I had made a number of scrolls all scribed with walls of stone. It took less than a minute to create a massive fortified tower to camp inside.

The next day they actually started getting organized. Showers of javelins rained down on us while we were fighting. They struck more than a few of their own, but they didn't seem to care. It was effective, forcing us to retreat for the day.

That night our tower fell over. I have no idea how much work it must have been to burrow enough tunnels to cause it to fall. It must have been enormous. It also let me know we might want to move on. Despite all the Learti we've killed, the camp was growing. Every day more tribes were moving in.

The next few weeks were spent exploring the northern mountains via devil express.

Both the Spine of the World and the Nether Mountains had plenty of orc camps. We gleefully wiped them all out, often luring the majority into elaborate traps before mopping any survivors.

I think the gods really did do something the change experience points and leveling between editions. Its the only explanation I can think of for how wiping out masses of such weak beings could still feed me a decent amount of energy.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I suppose I shouldn't have expected all of my actions to stay hidden. I hadn't really been making too much effort to hide my actions.

We had just gotten back when Yesk had let me know about the intruders. It seems small groups of mercenaries were starting to explore the swamp. It was arrogance that had us fly over and just drop into the middle of the group.

It seemed justified. The soldiers scattered fumbled around in the soggy ground. We didn't even attack at first, letting them get a good look at us. The mage was the issue. He didn't panic. Instead he immediately started chanting. The bolt of black energy struck Bhaoozk and he promptly collapsed.

I charged the mage before he could cast again and everyone threw themselves at the soldiers. We quickly tore them all apart. It was only luck that Bhaoozk survived. A few restorations later and he was fine. It still scared us.

My fault. The rest took their cues from me. And I acted like an idiot. I need to do better. To be better.

We took the rest of the fight more seriously. Sneak in close assassinate the mage. Ambush the rest.

It's a bit sad I won't be able to use any of the small mountain of spellbooks I've collected. At least the rest of the notes we've gathered were more useful. Even if I did have to torture a few to explain some parts.

The groups were all from Luskan. The Laerti had spread the word about a great magical treasure we had stolen and agreed to share it's secrets with anyone who returned it. The Host tower of the Arcane, the wizard school in Luskan had sent out most of it's graduating class.

Which was a bit insane. Although I guess it would cut down on the competition.

In retaliation I attacked the Host Tower with a kinetic energy weapon. It was simple. Wall of stone, a bit of shone shaping to make ir more aerodynamic, shrink item and just fly high above the tower before dispelling it. A true strike made sure I hit.

I wanted to be fancier though. So I shaped the stone to be hollow and filled it with transmuted clear oil. Then I made the stone as clear as glass. Let them try to see this coming.

I was thorough. I dropped fifteen of them on the tower. I'm not sure what protections were placed on the tower, but they weren't up to stopping over five tons of stone moving at terminal velocity. When I left the tower was completely shattered. Even the magic items were pulverized by the steady bombardment. At least if the lack of returns on my detection spells were any indication.

Three minutes after the attack I was gone. I was forced to master true strike just for that attack, but it was worth it. I was very satisfied with how effective my attack had been.

Best of all I there must have been quite a few powerful mages within. I had gained enough energy to level again. For a moment I was tempted to just keep going. Wiping out entire organizations. Than reason kicked in. Sadly I'm going to have to wait for provocation or risk everyone banding together against me.

Of course I'm not about to let someone use my own tactics against me. The nest few months were spent heavily fortifying the base. It included adding in layers of permanent walls of force as well as extending the complex much deeper.

Secrecy was just was important so I poured resourced into area as well. Not only did I add transmuted lead to every wall I moved most of the sensitive projects into magnificent mansions. This was all on top of the the layers of privacy spells already being placed.

And there was plenty to keep secret was well as secure. With abundant resources we could afford to actively trade with devils. The details behind a number of magical creations were easily purchased. With the information I needed I realized I now needed to go to Skullport.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Captain Herask had been on his ship Waverazor when the first attack occurred. At first he hadn't realized it was an attack. After all who would be crazy enough to attack the Host Tower? Besides there had been a number of magical explosions over the years.

When he saw the top half of the tower utterly demolished though he had been stunned. The four arms were already collapsing, no longer having enough support. What on earth could have done such a thing?

And then the rest of the tower exploded. The fireball was enormous and completely shattered the falling side towers. Rubble was thrown in every direction, burying everything nearby.

It didn't stop. Every few seconds another massive explosion erupted from the area where the tower had once proudly stood. A thick column of black smoke was rising from the fires that were spreading.

It was after the fourth such explosion he caught a glimpse of what was attacking. A shimmering transparent mass hurtling from the sky.

It was as if something was casting invisible meteor swarms. Which sounds horrific. And something he definitely wanted nothing to do with. He had no idea who the Host Tower had pissed off, but never was he so glad he had quit to become a pirate as he was right now.

When the attack had stopped he was one of the few who was brave enough to search the rubble. Even if he kept a dimension door readied the entire time. He scanned the area in disbelief, realizing that there wasn't a single magic aura in the entire area. Whatever the attacker had done had completely destroyed not only the power but everything contained within.

He tripped over something that looked off. He realized it was a chunk of stone, but it was invisible. Or at least was invisible before being covered in soot. Which meant...

Herask activated his dimension door.

There was no way he was going to chance staying in an area filled with leaking arcane radiation. He had seen the twisted experiments some of the mages had conducted. He had no intention of turning out like any of them. He already had enough trouble dealing with his bound demon.

Summoning and trapping the sibriex had seemed like such a good idea at the time. It was just his luck it didn't want to leave. Now it sat there, taking up a good portion of his hold experimenting on any of his crew that drew too close.

And to make things worse some of them liked the damn thing. They volunteered to run errands on it and called it lord. Asked it for it's favor. Asked to be twisted into monsters.

If only he had arrived back at Luskan a day earlier. He could have sold the thing to the tower and made a nice profit. Now it was too late. He just knew he was going to have a mutiny soon. Hopefully he still has enough loyal crew members to capture another ship and just leave the demon behind.

When the alarm sounded he made sure he was thoroughly armed. There was always the chance this was the demon making it's move. When he opened his cabin door he froze at the sight before him.

There on the deck stood a bloody huge figure. It was over a foot taller than any of his crew. A large reptilian face filled with fangs grinned at him It had a pair of large wings, which answered just how it got on board, along with a tail. And it was covered in solid black scales.

It was just his luck. The sibriex had managed to call in help. Movement drew his attention and he realized there were several of those things on board. He felt a wave of despair wash over him.

Until one the sailors who had been altered several times charged forward and was smashed into the deck with a single blow. The thing then took a step forward, crushing the sailor's skull.

"We wish to hire your ship to transport us to Skullport." Herask just stared. Something that terrifying should sound like that. The voice was calm and clear. It barely had any accent. The damn thing spoke better than he did!

However, they were powerful and not allied with the sibriex trying to take over his ship. Maybe they could make a deal. "The port fees for entering Skullport aren't cheap. We also haven't hit any other ships since we fled Luskan."

Herask wasn't sure, but it looked like the thing grinned at that last sentence. Definitely don't want to piss off anything allied to whatever mage attacked Luskan. "Perhaps we could make some kind of deal?"

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Despite the delay meeting Captain Herask turned out to be incredibly useful. After hearing his story I didn't get rid of his demon. I did better. I sold it.

Devils and demons hate each other passionately. The Bloodwar waged between the two is the largest multidimensional conflict in existence. The devils were more than happy to buy a sibriex, which was equivalent to a minor demon lord.

I then killed off his more disloyal crew. Afterwards I hired them to take me to Skullport. I had hit three other ships before finding the Waverazor. I had no real use for most of their cargo so paid them with it.

Skullport is an actual port. The only real entrance is from the sea. Only a ship captain can use the magical gates that allow entrance and they have to jump through a lot of hoops before being trusted.

So I skipped that entirely.

Skullport is actually underground. Located underneath the city of Waterdeep and part of the massive dungeon known as Undermountain. And the dungeon is only loosely monitored by either of it's creators, Halaster Blackcloak and the Skulls.

Once the ship is inside the port we fly off. From what I remember the city was located on a number of islands in the middle of a river. I was close. It was actually built along one side of the river and some islands.

Not even the extensive wards on Undermountain could prevent me from sensing the equivalent of a mythal laid over the city. The insanely powerful magical field was blinding the one time I attempted to use detect magic. Like casting detect water while drowning. The only response was basically yes.

I was staying well away from the mythal. Not only do I not know what exactly it does, I have no desire to tangle with the Skulls. I vaguely remember something about them being Netherese and reproducing, both of which sound terrifying. Still that left me the entire far side of the river to find a spot to take over.

At least I should be safe just visiting. I remember Halaster was doing something to keep them in check. At least until he gets killed or blown up or something. Which is third edition so not until after the Godswar.

It wasn't even hard. We found a small cave and I magically enlarged it and then used some of the scrolls I brought to secure it. Including adding a permanent magnificent mansion. Being an extradimensional area it'll allow me to construct a portal inside that bypasses Undermountains containment wards.

Then we fly back over.

My first impression is crowded. Skullport is built underground so every foot of space has to have been carved from solid rock. Buildings are narrow, tall and close together. Being underground and without a real government lighting is sporadic and usually dim.

Not that we had many problems. Even though I was the smallest of my generation I still stood over eight feet high. Paired with the obviously draconic look and we were given a wide berth. Of course there were idiots everywhere.

My hand snapped down, snatching up the arm that had just tried to pick pocket me. I stare incredulously at the grubby bird person I had caught. A kenku I think.

I shrug and despite it's thrashing, bite off his head. It still bothers me how easily I can eat things while they're alive. But the taste is so worth it. Hot, rich, juicy. An explosion of taste. An orgasm in my mouth.

Considering my lack of sexual partners, much needed. Almost as if she could hear me one of my sisters glares at me. Excuse me, attractive sexual partners. Yeah, still not a furry. Or would it be scaley? Also incest isn't even a concept among the lizardfolk. Semuanya really messed my species up.

I sigh as i hand the remains to the rest of the group and they tear him apart to get a taste. No need to be greedy. Especially since I already have a ring of sustenance negating my need for food. Besides indulging too much could wind up with me addicted. I was never going to let that happen.

After that everyone steered will clear of us.

The snack put me in a good mood. Enough so I don't even mind tipping someone for directions. And breaking a few bones too. It was Skullport. Seedy and completely lacking in any manners.

The store I wanted took a bit to find since I kept thinking of it was the Little Shop of Horrors. It's actual name, Hired Horrors, was close enough it only took a few tries for someone to eventually recognize it.

Ten thousand gold lighter and one deepspawn richer I then headed off to the slave markets. There I spent almost as much purchasing a dwarven master craftsman. I had to be picky since I needed one both high level and with a high wisdom score, but also not a cleric. Then I promptly fed him to my deepspawn.

Taking the portal back I installed it deep inside the complex within it's own magnificent mansion. The first one spawned I turned into a dread warrior and then spell-stitched it to be capable of animating more. He will be my overseer.

I was going to need the craftsman soon. One my largest projects had finally finished.

Golems were traditionally humanoid. I'm not really sure why, but that's the way they've always been. However I didn't want the normal shape. So instead of an elemental I used a demon.

Nothing says a golem has to be animated by an earth elemental except it's considered the most useful spirit to bind. Water elementals result in a quick, graceful construct with minor powers of illusion. They also lack the high damage reduction and innate magic immunity using an earth elemental adds.

Using a demon alters the powers in a completely different way. For one, they are alignment aspected, which means the construct ends up more independent that normal. Possibly more liable to go berzerk. Not being an elemental it doesn't integrate into the body as completely, resulting in weaker defensive powers than normal.

None of which matter to me. I used a marilith for the bound spirit for the sole purpose of it's shape. My golem reflected the spirit, being long, serpentine and possessing six arms. And it's abilities and reliability didn't matter because I promptly destroyed the golem.

Then I harvested every fragment of iron from its body to fashion as many Anvil's of Darkness as possible. Since the doom guards produced are shaped in the image of the original golem I wanted the soldiers to match. Besides the six arms alone make my doom guards much more dangerous than normal.

I had made as large a golem as I was able to, but there was a limit on how much power I could wield. So even though I can likely create hundreds of Anvils, it was well short of the thousands I had envisioned. So I start making more.

It'll take years, but I had plans for a full scale industrial complex centered around them. Fed a steady stream of walls of iron and manned by dread dwarven smiths I'll be able to produce armies. Stagger the production and I'll have a constant stream of them being produced. My current goal is to produce four a day, enough for a guard patrol.

Still I have years to ramp up production and build up my numbers. After all the Godswar hasn't even started yet and all of the events where I might need enormous amounts of troops take place afterwards.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

There were so many things I had wanted from the devils, but in the end I settled for what I could actually use. Samples. I would have asked for more knowledge except I've already been trading for them and I already know far more than I can currently use.

So I ended up asking for scraps of flesh from an entire list of creatures. Just about every entry from the monster manual's that I felt could be useful. They turned out to be surprisingly cheap. In the end I got my samples along with a few others they felt might be useful and was even able to purchase a number of eggs.

While the majority of the samples were not going to be useful until after the Godswar, the scraps of dragon flesh were immediately used.

After clearing out the swamp, I had all the hydra's rounded up. I had long since decided they would serve as a much better war machine than spinosaurs. Especially since they were incredibly tough and could survive the strain of a haste spell from a very early age. I had dreams of all of us riding into battle on the back of massively augmented hydras.


	7. Crusade

Chapter 7 Crusade

Tlinthar Regheriad turned in the saddle to view the column of soldiers behind him. The sight made him feel both humble and proud at what had been accomplished. It had been the work of years but it was all finally coming together.

It had been a long journey. Years of holding his temper when he was mocked and belittled for being bested by lizardfolk. For being scared of them. They just didn't realize how dangerous they could really be. The threat they posed.

He had joined the Order of the Aster in the hopes of gaining the support he needed to return to the Lizard Marsh. Lathander's blessing, their vulnerability to fire, surely they were all signs? The order had dismissed them.

Coward they had labeled him, broken by his losses. But he had retained Lathander's favor so they couldn't cast him out. They took it to mean he could be redeemed. Healed if shone the right path. He knew the truth though. It meant Lathander still supported him. That his course was the correct one.

Then they took to sending him out on a number of patrols. They ranged all along the Sword Coast and even ventured into the vast High Moors. They had fought numerous times, slaughtering goblins, orcs and even lizardfolk.

It was the last he tore into with unparalleled ferocity. Only to find out they fell all too easily. In fact they were pretty pathetic. They had no armor, usually not even possessing clothes. They had very crude tools and even the metal weapons they did possess were horribly rusted.

At first he thought it was a trick. That the order was trying to mislead him. But eventually it became obvious to him. The lizardfolk he was encountering were the norm. They were savages, barely more than animals. They didn't pose any danger to anyone. It was the ones in the Lizard Marsh that were different.

No that anyone believed him. Lizardfolk hadn't been spotted leaving the marsh in years. They claimed that obviously they had learned their lesson or taken horrible losses after the raid on Daggerford. After all not even so much as a caravan had been harassed by them since.

Instead they decided his changed stance meant he was mostly 'cured'. Only a lingering dread of where he lost his comrades remained. As long as any patrols steered clear of the Lizard Marsh he was perfectly reliable.

Tlinthar had wanted to quit at that point. Instead his mentor, a fellow paladin by the name of Aun Argent, had counseled another way. Under his guidance he had thrown himself into politics. He was even supported in his efforts by Daggerford, which was still feeling the effects of the raid.

Slowly he had risen in prestige, reknown and eventually rank. He still couldn't muster the order by himself though. And then as if confirming Lathander truly was behind him came the reports.

The Lizard Marsh, so silent for so long, was experiencing activity. It wasn't the lizardfolk. Instead small groups of adventurers were exploring the edges of the swamp. They all seemed to be searching for the same thing. Lizardfolk.

That still wouldn't have been enough except Luskan suffered a major attack soon afterwards. No one else had completely believed him, but the evidence was there. Instead they decided It was likely a rival mage had set himself up inside the swamp. The devastation wrought in Luskan did seem to support that idea.

Not that they did anything. They refused to muster the order when whatever was in there wasn't causing any problems. Instead they decided just to keep an eye on the area.

Fools. They were just giving them time to build up. Tlinthar was trapped though. Even with Aun now supporting him he still didn't have enough support. So he kept working and hoped it wasn't already too late.

Then the reports came from Daggerford. The swamp was finally showing activity. It wasn't lizardfolk as so many were quick to point out to him. It was a series of new creatures showing up.

A tribe of giant hobgoblins taking over an abandoned castle. A tribe of squat kobolds with blue scales taking over another. A series of moats and shallow canals appearing around parts of the swamp under the control of plant-like Siv. And finally enormous dinosaurs, started leaving the swamp to hunt.

The order believed this was all proof it really was a mage. The dinosaurs were obviously created magically. And lizardfolk don't ally with other races, they eat them.

Tlinthar honestly didn't care by this point. It didn't matter the rest of the order thought Lathander had just used his fear to try to point out the true danger. He was happy they were finally taking the danger seriously.

One thing they could both agree on. Whatever was in there it was now threatening civilization. Which made it evil and therefore to be purged.

The call to arms had gone out. Daggerford, anxious for revenge, had pledged the majority of their guard to the efforts. Luskan had posted a bounty on the mage, drawing in a number of adventuring bands. Many from their own city. Even Waterdeep had lent them support, although it was more in the way of supplies.

And the order had finally mustered. Over a hundred paladins and clerics led the way. And for his hatred and impatience, for the first time in years Tlinthar felt fully at peace with himself.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

As should be the case we had no problems marching south. The weather was fair and sunny, bandits and monsters avoided us. Even the road was remarkably free of potholes.

Aun rode by my side, but didn't seem to be enjoying our success. "Cheer up! We are finally going to wipe out the blight was lives inside the Lizard Marsh. A decade of work finally paying off. This is a momentous day!"

Tlinthar didn't let Aun's attitude bring him down. Not even the irritating sniping by the kobolds could do that. After all what else could they do? He had personally led the charge that shattered the only ambush the cowards had attempted so far.

He had no doubt they'd try again. They were less than a mile from the kobold's camp now and they weren't capable of facing them in battle. No. The kobolds aren't the problem. The real problem was still the lizard demons inside the marsh.

Tlinthar was as surprised as everyone else when he woke up the next morning. He had slept the entire night. He had been so sure one of the watch horns would have sounded last night. Looking around, he wasn't the only one. It seems like half the camp kept one eye open last night.

Shaking his head he made his way to the command tent and listened in disbelief to the scouting reports. He couldn't help but scoff when he heard them. A last stand? Don't those beasts know better?

They should have scattered and hid like the rats they are. Sure many of them would have been hunted down, but some of them would have escaped. After all, it would take too much time to try to track down all of them. Now they're all going to get killed.

Oh well. Fewer monsters in the world is always a good thing.

Tlinthar couldn't help but laugh when he saw the pathetic wooden defenses the kobolds had hidden behind. He was a paladin of Lathander! And they thought mere sticks would stop him?

It wasn't a horrible defense. A small maze of walls and watch towers. It'd be a hassle for adventurers. Not so much for an army.

Along with his men he laughed as the archers rained flaming arrows into the entire place. And now the maze was a deathtrap. Stupid kobold. They really were just animals. Clever, but not intelligent. A more annoying version of his nieces dog. Which gets into everything.

Tlinthar's wandering thoughts snapped back into focus when he heard the roar. From the center of the primitive village a large pit was revealed and a massive dinosaur was climbing out. And on it's back, riding in a saddle, was a lizardfolk.

Clearly it was meant to be a nasty surprise to catch them by surprise. Now it was panicking and fleeing, smashing through the walls to run to safety. And likely home.

Which meant... that's where the demon lizardfolk were hiding! "After them men! Don't let it get away!"

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Aun just felt tired when he looked at his eager protege. When Tlinthar had first made his way to the order he has been so bright. A passionate youth full of energy.

It as if he had a purpose. A personal quest from the Morninglord. Tlinthar often substituted blind faith for reason. Young, eager, impatient and determined to change the world for the better. It was thinking like that that had caused almost as many problems.

While that was considered slightly heretical, Lathander's own histories denote his occasional massive failures. So he had taken him under his wing. Sheltered Tlinthar from the inconsiderate masses who mocked him since his beliefs weren't popular. He had also done his best to temper him, to curb his excesses and outbursts.

Tlinthar was a good kid. Just a bit too reckless and outspoken. In many ways he reminded him of his estranged family. Ever since his brothers had massacred an elven village he had stopped talking to them and by association the rest of his family.

The elves weren't even doing anything wrong. Just denied them passage. And the reason they needed to pass through so urgently? They were hunting bandits. The worse part was they never even found the bandits. A whole village, killed for nothing.

The fact that the same paladins wouldn't have done the same to a nobles estate bothered him more than a little. In fact he had been thinking about retiring for quite a while now.

Seeing the kobolds holed up had bothered him more than a little. Kobolds never fought to the death unless they had a very strong reason to do so. A bunch of wooden huts and walls wasn't enough.

So he had arranged to burn it all down. When the dinosaur had smashed its way out of the pit he had been impressed. It wouldn't have let the kobolds win, but it would probably have distracted them enough for them to escape. Not it was just trampling their own lines.

Seeing it run off with a rider was worrying. Especially since it was clearly a lizardfolk. Tlinthar, even after all these years, was still irrational about that race. Sure enough. ""After them men! Don't let it get away!"

Sighing, Aun signaled the cavalry to back Tlinthar up.

He watched with his spyglass as the dinosaur move away, chased by two regiments of cavalry. Something about the situation seemed off.

At first he just thought he was worrying for no reason. And then he realized. The dinosaur wasn't pulling away. Spinosaurs were incredibly fast. They were even faster than a race horse. So why wasn't it pulling away?

Spinosaurs also don't have a lot of endurance. At this rate it'll exhaust itself for no reason. Suddenly he tensed and focused on the rider. Wait... sure enough, it was looking back. And it wasn't frantic, like it was scared. It was calculating, judging the distance. It was bait.

"Rouse the men! It's an ambush! Sound the recall." Aun's plans to regroup were interrupted by a roar that shook his bones.

With dread he looked up to see an enormous shadow pass overhead. The soft booms of it's wings wasn't enough to drown out the crackling hum of energy. Suddenly it's head darted out and a searing bolt of lightning tore it's way through the formation of cavalry.

"Form up!" Even over the screams of 'dragon' Aun's command was heard. He flared the reservoir of power and his presence burst forth, bolstering the morale of his men. He could feel his brothers-in-arms as they all did the same.

Morale was still fragile though. He couldn't even blame his men. Seeing what had just landed on what was left of his heavy cavalry he was scared himself.

A blue dragon.

From it's appearance it was no young, fresh dragon. No, it had scars and had lived long enough for it's scales to fade. Even young dragons are dangerous. This beast was easily a hundred feet long. This was a disaster.

Aun couldn't even feel any satisfaction seeing the falling body of the dinosaur and it's rider. It was obvious now it was a suicide mission, deliberately luring them here and then running off the cliff to leave only them as targets.

If he had read about such an act in a history book he may well have raised a toast to the soldier. Right now he can only think about how many of his men will die.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Aun was surprised to wake up. His last memories were of fighting what felt like a living storm. Thunder, wind and of course lightning. He groaned as he tried to shift his weight.

"Easy there."

He looked up to see Tlinthar sitting next to him, with his leg in a splint. "What happened?"

"The dragon tore apart the army. We ended up fleeing and lost most of our supplies. Luckily Daggerford was close enough to provide shelter. It didn't try to chase us."

Aun frowned. If they had a town to make camp in, why was he in a moving wagon. The sounds were obvious now that he was awake. Before he could ask Tlinthar started speaking again.

"We had barely settled in when the town came under assault." For the first time he noticed how strained Tlinthar's voice was. "Those reports of giant scaled hobgoblins? Turns out they were true. The reports also don't do them justice."

Aun had to strain to hear him now. Tlinthar's voice was soft, lost in memories. "They were organized, well equipped. More so than normal hobgoblins. Any mercenary company in Faerun would have been proud to be so fortunate."

"Five hundred of them. All neat and orderly. And even bringing large wagons with their own siege weapons."

Tlinthar gave out a bitter laugh. "If they could be called that. They were noisy, full of gears and chains. But they shot so fast... And they didn't fire arrows. Or even spears. They fired explosions! They rained down a stream of fiery death over and into the walls."

"We found out later what they were using. It was simple really. A short hollow wooden javelin. Coated on the inside and out with pitch. And filled with oil. Set it alight and when it strikes... instant fireball."

Aun paled as he imagined how destructive such a weapon might be. Still, it wouldn't be too bad. A mage's fireball would be far worse. As if sensing his doubt, Tlinthar suddenly turned to face him.

"Daggerford is gone. Burned to the ground by a shower of thousands of these 'firebolts'. They used less than a dozen machines to burn down an entire town in an hour. Now do you understand how bad the situation is?

"Even worse was what they had pulling the wagons. Dinosaurs, but warped and twisted vilely. Spinosaurs like before, but with two heads and barbed tentacles sprouting from their back. And the kobolds who survived were spotted among their ranks. It's a full army."

"I told you. I tried to tell everyone. But no one believed me. And now it's too late. The demon lizards have a blasted kingdom now."

Hearing the despair in Tlinthar's voice broke Aun from his shock. He reached out and gripped his friend's arm. "Not yet. The Order and even the entire church will take you more seriously now. And I think it's time to rejoin my family."

Aun gave a small grin at the surprise on Tlinthar's face. He had always made it clear his intentions of avoiding his family. "I may not like them, but they're influential. I don't like it, but with their name, I'll be able to support your efforts."

"Lathander rises." He grabbed Tlinthar's hand in the traditional greeting for new quests.

"Lathander rises!" Seeing the rising hope on Tlinthar's face, Aun felt satisfied. He supposes there really is something to just charging in.


	8. Numbers Game

Chapter 8 Numbers Game

The breeding program is going well. All of my siblings except myself had mated and resulting eggs have all successfully hatched. While female lizardfolk only lay a single egg and still required healing afterwards, my sisters are all able to lay clutches just fine.

It looks like as a new species we are already viable. The second generation of our species is already flourishing, hard at work training under whichever mentor they chose or were assigned. Well, most of them. Aside from a few inevitable losses I was sadly forced to sacrifice a niece.

Poor Othre, you're sacrifice was not in vain. I hope you rest content in the afterlife knowing that you personally led to the destruction of an entire army. You do your mother proud.

Your actions even allowed us to kill the annoying blue dragon afterwards. It was an amazing rush killing him. I kept it simple. I teleported high above the dragon covered in buffs and proceeded to dive straight down. I held a massive lance that, thanks to several divination spells, slipped between his scales.

Once the lance was dug in deep I unshrunk it. Having a tree size bar of metal growing his neck killed him almost instantly. I as just glad I didn't have to go with my backup plan and have him swallow me before expending the lance. Even if it would have been poetic justice.

After all it had recently taken to raiding our ranches, which was crippling our resources. Unfortunately the kobolds did not like that part of the plan. The insane little bastards had apparently taken being raided as some kind of sign they were being favored. Killing a dragon was essentially sacrilege.

Even in death the dragon opposed us. The kobold project was largely a wash, only the ones already stationed with the hobgoblins were left. And that might only be until they hear I killed a dragon. What a waste.

Even worse, the dragon's treasure wasn't anything special. We couldn't even use half of it. Stupid bardic music requirements.

How does that even work in a world where magic itself is a product of a diety? There are a lot of weird exceptions to using the Weave. It seemed more and more that when Mystra reincarnated the first time she missed a lot more than she realized. Maybe more than even her first incarnation realized.

After all bardic music was based off fragments of the Song of Creation and Denier read something powerful enough to catapult him into instant godhood. Hell, at some point Orcus uses something like that. After all how else can something like the Final Word work?

Sadly, none of which helps me now. Despite any offspring of mine likely being better than normal I can't bring myself to breed. For one, I have absolutely no desire to sleep with a humanoid lizard. I also have absolutely no intention of letting someone magically persuade me otherwise. For another, it just looks so damn awkward!

I have no idea why lizardfolk have two penises, it doesn't seem to make a different when they mate. In fact it seems to get in the way if the awkward positions they assume are any indication. And of course I have plenty of examples since lizardfolk also don't seem to have a sense of privacy.

It's not like they need a spare because it's vulnerable since they're completely retractable. And given the amount of posturing I've seen it definitely isn't from any sense of modesty. I can only assume it's some weird evolutionary quirk.

Maybe I can design some kind of spell or ritual to cause impregnation. It wouldn't be only me. Breeding hydras and other creatures would be a lot easier with such a spell. After all I'm going to need to step up the productivity of my ranches if we were going to grow.

Or even survive. Crushing the army may have made us safer in the short term, but it drastically upped our threat level to the rest of Faerun.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It was a bit reckless, but I summon another Sibriex and sell it to the Baatezu. I didn't have the time to conduct the slow careful research that I preferred. I needed to expand fast.

I expected to get a Delver. A massive sluglike creatures that constantly excretes a slime that temporarily softens stone. What they sold me instead was a Bi-nou. They swore it was capable of everything I wanted despite it's appearance.

I had never even heard of such a thing before. To picture a Bi-nou imagine a petrified tree. Old, with a trunk about two feet wide and standing about fifteen feet high. It had been broken at some point and jagged stumps were all that were left except a single pair of long, gnarled branches for arms. The trunk and roots form short stumpy legs. A pair of gleaming amber eyes and a gash for a mouth and it was complete.

Of course since I was dealing with devils it did everything they claimed. They were bastards, but honest ones. Well, as honest as rules lawyers ever are. But the contract was as perfect as I could make it and they didn't even quibble over it.

It was pretty odd seeing a team of what looked like stumpy Ents serving as construction workers. I can't argue with results. It look less than a week for them to more than triple the underground levels. Our druids followed behind and set up massive underground farms and ranches.

Setting up an underground farm was incredibly easy. So much so I don't know why there aren't more of them. The only big difference was the lack of sunlight and a simple light enchantment solves that issue. And used creatively Plant Growth is amazingly powerful.

Just make sure nothing but fruit trees, berry bushes and other desired plants are in the area before using Overgrowth. Second later the saplings are full trees, the sprouts are hedges and everything smaller is ready to be harvested.

That wasn't the only way we used it. The devils had access to quite a few areas and I had taken full advantage of that when bargaining. Plants that produce ebony, frankincense and other products I barely remembered along with more magical species like fey cherry trees and weir trees.

The fey cherries in particular were important for keeping the air from going stale along with temperature regulation. Without them I'd likely have to invest in a host of magical items. Which I guess explains the lack of underground farms. Fey cherry trees are fairly rare from what I remember.

The sudden abundance of plants, coupled with regenerating sources of meat, meant I didn't have to hold back with the breeding projects. Killing the blue dragon had even given me several ideas. It wasn't long before there were clutches of shocker lizard and halruuan behir eggs all infused with blue dragon blood.

I wasn't even breeding full blooded hydras anymore. A number of very expensive rituals, both magical and alchemical had created exactly what I wanted. A 24-headed hydra with fang dragon blood along with a large number of other enhancements. Well twelve headed technically. But if you harvest them just right, the skeleton still has the extra heads. Thanks to a few curses and a ring of regeneration I was going to be able to endlessly produce incredibly powerful skeletons.

Devils really do make amazing business partners, at least as long as you're careful. Since I was practically letting them rip me off each time, I'm fairly certain they want to keep me around.

It does help that I'm currently dealing with Mephistopheles. One of the most important bits of information I remember about him was his long term plans for soul harvesting. And since I have most of the hobgoblins currently worshiping him as part of my deal, it's very unlikely he'll betray me. Additionally all the Baatezu support my goal of wiping out the lizard kings and getting rid of their demonic followers.

At least the dragon's treasure wasn't completely useless. It sold for enough to purchase several more deepspawn. Which in turn meant I could ramp up production of bone nagas. I took the best of the four-headed nagas and infused them with black dragon blood before feeding them to the deepspawn.

I plan on creating an entire network of hidden outposts. Each one built inside an artificial petrified tree. The hollow trunk will have a magnificent mansion to house the garrison. Each outpost will be run by a bone naga and hold a number of hydra skeletons inside it. Additionally since trolls are so easy to create more of, they'll have a half-blue dragon troll to create their base troops.

Between lightning fog spells, the troll skeletons, shocker lizards and behirs anything not immune to lightning should die easily. With layers of defense planned out the only real thing left to do is expand. Which sadly requires much larger numbers to become viable.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Since I can't really conquer any areas I start a few long term projects instead. Since settling anyplace except in marshes will be both uncomfortable and heavily contested, what I needed was more swamps.

Creating a swamp wasn't difficult. Plant a large number of appropriate seeds, cast Overgrowth and then just dam up a nearby river. The thick brush will eventually drown, but will also slow down the flooding water enough to thoroughly soak the ground. Instant marsh. Or at least the beginnings of one.

In fact I had already used this method to expand the Lizard Marsh. Without Daggerford I was rapidly pushing the boundry of the swamp dozens of miles upriver. Right up to the edge of the Trade Way road. In order to keep from upsetting too many people, I rebuilt the entire stretch out of stone to keep it from turning muddy.

I also started two other potential swamps. One north of Yartar, nearby Longsaddle. I chose it because many of the novels I read took place in that general area and having a base there would help me keep an eye on it. The area was uninhabited due to orcs and barbarian tribes constantly roaming the area. Neither of which can fight terraforming.

The second was south where the Winding Water river met the sea. The area wasn't settled due to being next to the Troll mountains. Which meant I was able to flood dozens of miles of land without anyone noticing.

Since was setting up a future base north and south I decided to add one to the east. I wasn't willing to enter the High Moor. I don't remember what exactly lived there, but I do remember it was incredibly powerful. So I went about a hundred miles upriver far from any settlements and set up a series of dams.

In order to disguise the setup I have the hobgoblins move there, just north of what I was setting up. I built a new castle for them, even larger than the one they currently used. It was a much more fantasy style castle too.

A series of six massive towers joined together by bridges and arches, all placed around a number of streams that the river had been divided into before it turned into a swamp. Each tower had several turrets housing small siege engines and the top held a trebuchet. The bridges were solid and enclosed and just like most of the castle studded with a number of narrow windows equipped with iron shutters.

They were also connected underground by a series of tunnels and connected storerooms. Essentially six mini-dungeons that connected to each other, I planned to eventually connect it to the base I set up.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Concentrating fiercely I slowly extend my senses towards the longsword. I know it's stats, they were the same in every edition. Now I just need to get the damned spell to show me the same information.

I had been too ambitious initially, wanted something like the Observe skill from the Gamer. Revealing entire character sheets with a glance. Constant failures had me narrowing the focus of the spell until now I was just trying to find a single value. I was still having problems since I was determined to make the spell versatile, able to reveal ANY one stat.

It was slow going.

Finally after an eternity of failures.

[1d8]

I stare in shock for a moment at the text floating in front of me.

Yes!

Finally! I jumped up and cheered at finally succeeding. I spend the rest of the day thoroughly testing my spell.

The spell isn't as versatile as I'd like, only being able to reveal certain values and it was almost arbitrary which ones it did work for, but it was still far more than I had before. Best of all the spell had a duration and was cast on myself, which was the hardest part to set up. Although I still think a ninth level slot is way too high for what I had made.

Ha! My free time for the past year wasn't being wasted! Now I finally have a way of gauging the effectiveness of some of the rituals I owned. Which I had been using for over a year already.

Ok. Maybe I had wasted some of my time. I couldn't really help it.

I was bored!

Without an immediate fear of death or the internet to distract me I was going insane from boredom. In some ways the farms had made it worse. At least before I had hunger to occupy my mind.

If only I could read!

I can of course. The problem was getting books. Those bastards from the Order of the Aster seemed to have riled everyone up against me. I swear, destroy two towns and everyone panicks. Now it seems everyone has wards specifically against lizardfolk. Even Waterdeep has them and I'm pretty sure they didn't before.

Captain Herask has quickly become one of my best friends. I find it sad sometimes that a pirate, someone guilty of murder, slavery and other horrible crimes, is one of the people I'm closest too.

It can't be helped though. I kept too many behaviors from my previous life. I just had a hard time adjusting to my new life. Despite how he smells a bit like food to my current body, it's still easier to relax around him than my siblings.

He's also the reason I have any books at all. He regularly purchases a load of books from Skullport for me. He's particularly diligent about upgrading my arcane library since I don't mind him using it.

Although not even for my pirate friend was I willing to expand the relatively small set of primitive docks I already made. I wanted my swamp to be as overlooked as possible. Probably unrealistic, but it couldn't hurt. But I also needed sea traffic and likely plenty of it for some of my future plans.

So I needed a port. A small, isolated port that's easily defended.

Orlumbor is a small island less than a dozen miles long and half that across. Despite it's central location and population of skilled shipwrights it remains a small isolated city state.

The main reason was due to it's harbor. It only has one and navigating it is still a slow and difficult affair. Even fishing is hazardous. Which limits the local food source to goats, the only animal hardy enough to survive in any numbers.

However it's the harbor that is the main attraction for me. I can easily expand the harbor defenses, incorporating tall towers equipped with siege engines. Using undead, staffing them wouldn't be a problem.

Additionally I can even build towers off shore using the rocky outcrops that make the harbor dangerous. A few harbor chains strung between them and island would end up a fortress.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Without an army I wasn't willing to move. However just the fact that I was actively preparing for the invasion was enough to alleviate my boredom.

For convincing me I had Herask take me on a cruise down to the Lake of Steam. None of my siblings accompanied us, unwilling to leave the base and their young for the weeks the 1800+ mile journey would take. Not that I was going to be away that long. I had Herask set sail over a week ago. I'll just scry and teleport to him later on.

Meanwhile I was busy setting up my first ship. Rather than go with any of the normal designs I was creating a catamaran. I didn't need a massive cargo hold. I needed a stable platform to launch assaults from.

I took too caravels, joined them together and then removed their masts and sails. I had a much better method of propulsion in mind. Using fabricate it was easy to create a massive bicycle powered pair of propellers. Half-dragon troll skeletons would provide more than enough power to easily surpass any other current propulsion method.

It took up the bottom cargo hold for each ship, but it wasn't like I needed the space. Permanent magnificent mansions provided all the space I could want. Which was mostly used to hold thousands more of the half-dragon scrag skeletons I'd be using as troops here. I'm still not sure how a skeleton can still swim around, but I'm not about to let that keep me from taking advantage of the fact.

Copper plating the hulls with copper rivets and every other trick I could still remember were all incorporated. And standing on the deck were all eight of my 'living siege engines'. They were one of the many creations as a result of my research into working with low level undead.

Ship building tips weren't the only thing I ended up recalling one of the most overpowered items in the DnD game. The stupid hat from the cartoon. Able to generate virtually any material component, reinventing it was the only reason I was able to create so many undead.

Working with skeletons so often it only made sense that I would want to improve them. Combined with my work with constructs and I had made a breakthrough. I could essentially program a few advanced behaviors into skeletons using a ritual in combination with the animation process. Nothing too fancy, but equivalent to a few feats.

The best part was that rock throwing apparently was the equivalent to a racial feat. So my stone giant skeletons were able to be taught how to act as siege engines. Far Shot, Rapid Shot and Brutal Throw meant they were very accurate siege engines too. Especially since the original body was a half-red dragon as well. After all, fire is a common naval weapon.

Clad in bronze armor they had piles of crude iron spheres that still did significantly more damage than an equivalent sized rock. 4d6 instead of 2d8 specifically thanks to my lovely Observe spell. It was just too bad it didn't translate into anything more streamline. A fifty pound javelin would do a lot more damage.

Once down at the Lake of Steam I wasted no time harvesting everything I found useful. Nothing immediately useful, but will definitely pay off in the long run. I was surprisingly nerve wracking setting plans in motion and the stepping back and just hoping they work out. I wonder if that's how Essylliss feels about me?


	9. Orlumbor

Chapter 9 Orlumbor

Suld Garland stepped out and sighed as he breathed in the salty air. Today was another good day. The succession had been decided last night and he was never more glad the title was matriarchal.

Sure Orlumbor isn't too large, but it was big enough that governing it was a constant hassle. The shipwright's guild in particular was annoying. By far the most powerful faction on the island, the current guild master was a pushy greedy bastard.

As little attention as Suld paid to politics, even he knew that raising the prices for Waterdeep was the height of madness. So what if Luskan was gone and the demand for ships had risen drastically? Waterdeep had priority because they were the very reason they still existed. Every child knew that.

It was blindingly obvious to anyone who even glanced at their history. When the pirate fleets of Mintarn invaded, Waterdeep drove them off. When Baldur's Gate pressured them, Waterdeep stopped them. And now the idiot wants to upset Waterdeep?

Did he expect the local militia to repel the next assault from the sahuagin? Suld had lost a niece to the scaly bastards. It had been what inspired him to start training seriously. He also knew, thanks to his instructor, just how dangerous they are.

Suld shook his head. No use getting annoyed with the idiot. He was his sister's problem now. A drink would probably help calm him down.

As he walked down the slope he could see the entire city stretched out before him. It was a beautiful sight. Even though he had been raised here, it still took his breath away.

It was while he was standing there that he saw something. A patch of air that just seemed off. A practiced motion had his spyglass in hand and he peered intently through it.

There.

It wasn't the air. It was a number of small things. The way the sawdust swirled oddly, avoiding a small area. The way the seagulls cleared out. And the splash of a puddle as something invisible stepped in it.

Whatever it was, it seemed to be searching. Wandering through the dockyards. Maybe scouting? Suld focused on the puddle and sure enough a wet clawed footprint was visible.

Sahuagin!

He needed to raise the alarm! Almost as if in response the militia alarm rang out. Good! They can hold the bastards off long enough for him to get equipped and join them.

Suld looked up to see a bizarre ship sailing into the harbor. Set low in the water it was well suited to travel in the sea. However it was much larger than normal. A pair of large, but narrow, cargo ships were side-by-side. A large platform had been constructed between them, joining them into a single ship. While it was more stable, it would also make sailing much more complicated. At least if it had sails.

Instead of sails, or even oars, it just seemed to be drifting. Which it couldn't be since it was maneuvering around the rocky outcrops that made fishing so hazardous. And the large armored figures made it fairly clear they weren't peaceful.

Definitely sahuagin. Who else wouldn't have any need for sails to travel the seas? The armor was bronze though. They were learning, but clearly not fast enough. Good, he was looking forward to avenging his niece.

Suld didn't stay to watch. Orlumbor needed him now. He hurried to his room and started putting on his armor. A present from his last birthday he wished he had more practice in it. Once his chain mail was secure he marched out into a scene of horror.

It wasn't sahuagin.

That was the first thought he had. It was his first thought and probably unimportant. The disappointment combined with his shock to stun him.

In the harbor the ship had pulled up and was disgorging a flood of troops. But instead of the hated fish men, a wave of large skeletons were advancing. From the way they moved they were clearly scrags. In front of them crawled a flood of turtle skeletons. As he watched more of them were climbing out of the water.

They weren't even proper skeletons either. The shells were lined and gnarled, like the things were carved from some yellow-white wood. From the sounds it was as hard as stone though. Doubtless some unusual coral.

Which meant it was sahuagin. They were just using the undead to soften them up. Clearly they had plenty of necromancers. Not that he was surprised those monsters would practice such a foul art. They weren't too powerful if they could only use skeletons though.

Confident Suld drew yelled out and charged into the fray.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Orlumbor had been secured. But at what a cost. I had lost almost everything I sent. My ship had been demolished. Why was someone capable of casting meteor swarm living in a tiny town of less than two thousand people?

Of the skeletons, only a single stone giant skeleton had survived. Well that and a bunch of turtles.

The turtles really had been one of my better ideas. Clearing out the majority of large predators, including other lizardfolk, the dominant species in the swamp had become turtles. Large, vicious and fast growing snapping turtles.

Add in a bit of fang dragon blood and druidic energy and they were incredibly effective skeletons. Unlike most corpses, they retained their natural armor since their shell was part of their skeleton. Seeing their potential I had used all the enhancement rituals on them and even cursed the new race to grow and age quicker, which made them voracious. If I wasn't feeding them they likely would have stripped the swamp of all other life. Or at least tried too.

Out of the hundreds of four foot turtle skeletons almost half had survived. I had let them loose in the base since I no longer had any bone nagas to control them. Damn wizard.

Luckily I didn't lose anything I couldn't afford too. The losses, while annoying, were hardly crippling. Within a year I'll have replaced them all. Of course I don't have a year. I'm not even sure I have a month.

One of the problems of moving too early. My impatience could ruin me. Now I have to take a risk. There is no way I'm just going to leave the island empty. It'll be taken over long before I'm ready to come back and claim it.

Which means I'm going to have to strip some of the defenses from the swamp away in order to secure the island. I didn't have any more giants, but I did have a few more bone nagas. I teleport all three over immediately. Securing the island was worth their potential loss.

Then I start setting up the outpost. Thankfully as least part of my plans worked out. I had managed to discretely survey the town and Observe the shipwrights in order to capture the most skilled one. There was also more than enough loot from the town to purchase a deepspawn or three. It won't be long before I have my own fleet.

I end up mastering Wall of Stone, Wall of Iron and Fabricate over the following week. It wasn't something that can be helped. Cast only those spells dozens of times a day and they burn themselves into your memory. Still, it was worth it to see the massive array of defensive towers that now protects the lone harbor. A second array of towers is placed along the entire edge of the island just in case.

Sadly they're almost all entirely empty. Well, not empty, but not staffed the way I prefer. Since I couldn't use bone nagas I opted to just fill them with troll skeletons armed with steel compound longbows. They're locked into small cubbys with only arrow slits to see out of. They'll shoot everyone that approaches, but hopefully that'll buy me time. And at least they can only shoot away from the island.

I bring my siblings over to cast Plant Growth all over the island. If nothing else the brush will make it harder to reach the towers. And choking the harbor with seaweed should make it even easier for the turtle skeletons to gnaw through the hulls of any ships that enter.

My losses force me to move much faster than I wanted too. I end up purchasing every deepspawn available at Hired Horrors. I don't like revealing I had that much more gold so soon after spending the dragon's hoard, but I couldn't afford to wait. And while it'll slow down my production in the short term, in two months I'll be producing a giant and naga every week instead of month.

I also took the time to feed the largest of the hydra hatchlings to a deepspawn. The spawn should be strong enough to use Haste on. Which means I can have a hydra skeleton a month instead of having to wait another year for them to grow. And while long term breeding them will produce far more, I needed them now.

The fact that the hobgoblin tribe I set up had been wiped out did not help my peace of mind. The church of Lathander was really proving to be a thorn in my side. Herask had been following the rumors and rather than be considered a failure, the crusade had been viewed in a neutral light.

Daggerford had been burned down and the swamp hadn't been 'cleansed'. Howver, they did kill a seventy foot blue dragon, wipe out a kobold tribe and discover how dangerous the hobgoblins were. In fact they had been credited with forcing them to move.

The fortress the hobgoblins moved into was viewed as proof of the righteousness of their cause. Which is my fault for going overboard. Gothic architecture was probably way too provocative. The paladins had hired a number of adventurers and stormed the place.

At least the contingencies worked. Once the place fell massive explosions tore apart the bottom layers of the fortress, causing the towers to fall down. The adventurers were all killed as were most of the paladins. The highest ranking survivor though had vowed to rebuild the Order's numbers and restart the crusade. And since he's doing so in Waterdeep, he's safe from me. For now.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

A month later I watch in horror as a massive crab tears it's way through my harbor defenses. It's more than powerful enough to wade through the sea weed and none of the skeletons can hurt it through it's thick armor.

The thing is easily forty feet across. Each swing of it's claws gouges out entire chunks of stone. Judging by the rubble, it's been attacking for several minutes already. I'm just glad I had set up an alarm spell of I might have only noticed after everything was destroyed.

Damn. Pretty much everything I have is geared towards wooden ships and humanoid opponents. I doubt the thousand or so skeleton archers I made from the previous townsfolk will even slow it down.

The main issue was why was it here? There is no reason for a sea monster to attack. Well, unless Umberlee is upset with me? Maybe she knows about my destroying two ports? I made offerings though! Hell, I plan on building a fleet of my own eventually.

I wrack my brain to figure out the cause. Then I see shapes emerging from the waters.

Sahuagin. Shark people. They weren't supposed to make any major attacks... until Iakhovas was freed. Was that war starting already? I don't remember much about it unfortunately.

Essylliss damn it.

Huh. I'm even swearing in his name now. Damn priests. I guess I shouldn't complain. After all I did make a deal to serve as his champion. And it wasn't like it came without any benefits.

I make sure to grab the newest of them even as I rally my siblings. The lance I had used to kill the blue dragon had been imbued by my patron. Somehow he had used the dragon's death as a catalyst. Or fuel. Or something. Truthfully I know very little about the details of divine magic.

The Fang of Essylliss was an amazing weapon. A tribladed lance that was clearly an artifact weapon with it's stats. Sure +3 is decent, but Wounding 3 is insane. That doesn't even include how the wounding gets multiplied on a critical. And it looks like Essylliss also took inspiration from dragonlance since otherwise a 20 foot lance makes little sense. At least it's light enough I can wield it. Sort of.

I'm not actually sure how he managed it either. I always thought the dietys had to follow the same rules of magic as the rest of us. Maybe they aren't restricted the same way when the Weave is remade? I can see my weapon fitting in a 1e campaign. After all they had things like poisons that kill in you fail a single save. And a wyvern isn't exactly upper tier as far as monsters go.

We teleport into the air and I lose track of my siblings as I go into a dive. One of the more subtle powers of my lance was it's ability to imbue knowledge of a few tricks to it's wielder. Well actually quite a few tricks. I'm fairly certain Essylliss took advantage of my metaknowledge. How else could I end up with Spirited Charge, Reckless Charge and Shocktrooper while still in 2e?

As I plummet I cast hunter's eye and true strike on myself. Might as well make this count. I didn't bother slowing down either. The extra momentum will just increase how much damage I deal and my fast healing should clear up anything I take in a few seconds.

I slam into the back of the crab with a thunderous crash. My left arm, holding the lance, dislocated and tumble sideways from the remaining momentum. I land on the shattered remains of the back armor plate, several pieces of which cut into me.

Damn.

While I an certainly now confirm how effective a charging build is, that hurt a bit more than I expected. Thank Essylliss for fast healing. I doubt I'd be willing to wait until I was injured enough for the lance to bother healing me.

Strangely, despite how brutal my life has been so far I am still not very used to pain. My bodies damage reduction means I don't get minor injuries, which is an odd thing in and of itself. I had no idea just now many times I mildly hurt myself in my past life. Burning my mouth, biting my tongue, even stubbing a toe.

Even a single point of DR would have likely prevented all that. My template means I have ten. A longbow only deals 1d8. It's an odd sensation to walk through a storm of arrows and only feel like it's raining.

Falling damage from terminal velocity is a bit more than just ten points. At least I also have fast healing. The pieces of shell are being pushing out of my back even as I lay there. They dig back in when the crab shudders violently and then collapses.

I groan as I get up, but can't resist grinning as Observe confirms I'm standing on a very dead crab. I can't resist flinching as my arm pops back into place. There isn't even any phantom pains left so I wrench my lance free and look around.

Seeing part of the shell shifting I ready myself. Was it pregnant? Full of parasites? About to explode? At the last I take off. Besides I can always use the height to dive again if need be.

Seeing one of the armor plates just fall off and sahuagin crawl out was a shock. The hell?

Ha! A fragment of memory pops up. I know what this was. A siege crab. Hollowed out and heavily enchanted they were basically fantasy AT-ATs. Although much harder to trip.

They were also a high level monster if I remember correctly. And I one shotted it. I love this lance.

The rest of the sahuagin don't retreat. Which makes no sense. The rest of my siblings are tearing apart everyone they run across. While not as dramatic as my entrance, they were very effective.

And then the sea ripples as more monstrous crabs break the water's surface. One. Two. Three. Huh. They really went all out.

I have a moment so I take a moment to meditate. I've already reached an impressively high level. Level eighteen as a sorceror is no small thing. But my growth has been stagnating recently. The exponential cost of continuing to level means it just isn't worth it anymore. Even the siege crab I just killed would be no more than a drop in the bucket towards level nineteen.

So I channel the energy in a new direction. Truthfully I had wanted to become a wizard in the first place. Circumstances had conspired against that, but I had never lost that dream. My massive arcane library, collection of scrolls and even my rituals were all means to getting just that little bit closer.

I pour the gathered energy into a new direction and laugh out loud as I immediately unlock the first five levels of wizard. I've lost access to my sorceror spells for now, but seeing the siege crabs before me, I don't think it'll take me long to regain access to them.

"The siege crabs are mine!" With that last command I throw myself into the air. Time to level up.


	10. Farming

Chapter 10 Farming

I may have been too impatient. Killing the three other crabs only raised my level to seven. It looks I'm going to need some serious grinding in order to raise my level. I probably should have thought this through a bit more.

Since I still had held back a few bone nagas I wasn't going to have to start over. They could easily create the undead I needed. It just meant I had a weak link. At least until I was powerful enough to start mass producing undead myself again.

Rather than running around the world randomly attacking everything I find I decided to just raise monsters myself. After all it wasn't combat that gave me power. It was the act of killing them. Even just executing them seemed to work. A slaughterhouse would provide me a constant stream of energy.

I sat down, thinking about every creature I can remember. I went through my library and even cast a number of divination spells. I even consulted with a number of devils.

When I did find my answer I felt so very slow. It seemed so obvious in retrospect. The fastest growing creatures were all insects. Which I knew and just somehow overlooked.

Skullport truly is one of the few places you can find almost everything. It wasn't even hard to track down a number of different insect eggs and even a few slaves. Unlimited gold really is an amazing find. Hopefully having Herask acting for me will keep too much attention from heading my way.

Seeing how I can't freely teleport around anymore I set up the new breeding farms in the primary base in the Lizard Marsh. Which given the number of lightning based defenses I have inspires me to name it Dromund Kas. I'm not the most creative with names, so stealing from Star Wars is a nice way around that issue. And I'm going to need to start naming the bases once I expand. Might as well start now.

Of course I make sure to crossbreed the species. Dragon blood really is powerful stuff and there was little point in holding back. After all I can always raise the bodies afterwards as undead.

Giant bees turned out to be a disappointment. They didn't just drink nectar, they ate the flowers and even the rest of the plant sometimes. It was way too expensive to try and feed them. Which left predatory insects. Who just happened to also turn out to be much more useful.

Giant praying mantises enhanced with the chameleon, woodling and half-fang dragon template created very interesting guards. With their ability to blend in, they were even better as hiding then if they were invisible. Unfortunately they weren't very controllable. So I seeded them across Orlumbor. A nasty surprise for anyone who arrives and attempts to cut their way through the plant life.

Thankfully the bone nagas I already placed on the island weren't destroyed. I leave them instructions to periodically harvest and drop off packets of meat across the island to feed the mantises. Which should quickly result in a population explosion.

Giant centipedes are interesting because of just how fragile they are. A six foot creature that's as easy to control as a human skeleton could be useful. Not amazing, but it's smooth gait and armor plating means it could serve as a decent and easily controllable mount.

Like the centipedes, scorpions weren't very useful. Less since it was harder to control them. Their weapons weren't even that powerful. Most of the beetles were in the same position.

Even the giant stag beetle, despite it's enormous mandibles dealing an amazing 4d6 damage. With fang dragon blood and a few other enhancements they turned into a pair of jagged serrated shears that dealt 8d6 damage. If only it wasn't a herbivore.

Ants were surprisingly useful. They bred quickly, they were hive minded and if I made sure to alter both the queen and her mate the alterations bred true. They weren't very powerful, but how quickly they bred they could still pose a decent threat.

Infusing them with black dragon blood instead of fang dragon I decided to use them to capture the Mere of Dead Men. There were reports of black dragons in that swamp and I wanted something that could survive long enough to at least harass them.

To control them I placed a special collar on the queen. It was a simple combination. A minor intelligence boost allowed it to think. Which meant it could be influenced. And a minor charm made it view me as a trusted ally. It was the work of a few hours to have a few siblings dig them a burrow and supply them with a crippled troll.

Then I simply ordered her to expand into the swamp. I doubt the ants will actually take over the place, but they should be able to weaken everything else in the area.

Which only left the spiders. In many ways they were the most useful and most disappointing. While I can't argue that their ability to produce large amounts of silk isn't useful, crossbreeding them didn't improve them at all. No matter what I used the silk remained exactly the same as a normal spider.

Additionally silk could only be produced as living spiders. Luckily drow frequent Skullport and I was able to get my hands on sword spider. After improvements, such as fang dragon blood and rituals, each leg dealt damage like a greatsword rather than a shortsword. Factor in improvements to armor and abilities and I believe it was easily twice as dangerous as before. It wasn't twice as tough, but it dealt almost triple the damage.

The energy I gathered from killing one seemed to match that assessment as well. Farming them seems like it's going to be my best bet.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Insects weren't the only thing I ended up farming. My siblings finally seemed to be showing some ambition and several of them were raising more intelligent species. Kodrih and Thriz had actually gone out and rescued what was left of the hobgoblin tribe. They had been unwilling to give up the resource investment they represented. Or so they claimed.

Personally I felt it was more likely that they were bored and they enjoyed the idea of leading heavy infantry. Not that there's a problem with that. Well, except the fact that heavy infantry doesn't really do well inside a swamp. Still, they represent a potential resource and as long as I don't have to handle it, there's no harm done.

Likewise with Raxl salvaging all the kobold eggs and hatchlings he could find. Although at least with them mother Yesk is helping to raise them. Instead of mere minions, they'll be allies. Brother worshipers of the same diety.

I like their plan for them too. Thanks to their draconic heritage, kobolds all have the potential to be sorcerers. Have them execute a sword spider as soon as successfully cast their first spell should grant them a couple of levels. Then continue power leveling the kobolds until they can all cast third level spells.

Dress it up as some kind of sacrificial holy ritual, maybe with a mechanism of some kind, and they shouldn't realize the cheat I was using. No need to let potential rivals find a method of gaining power quickly.

Once they master the spell animate dead, they can start training to become proficient in their creation. Baldur's Gate really left a lot of details out. Or rather, second edition didn't cover just how versatile the leveling system was. Rather than having proficiency points to place in various weapon styles, I had hundreds of options.

In many ways the points work like passive feats. They were more powerful too. I had sunk two into undead creation and they basically granted me the benefit of the entire Corpsecrafter feat tree. I doubt the kobolds will be able to channel harvested power into leveling as efficiently so they'll need plenty of practice. At least the component hat ensures it won't bankrupt me.

Hess along with a few others has decided on a much odder goal. I suppose I have been complaining about trading with the Baatezu a bit lately, but I never expected them to go so far. After all who expects your family to go out and kidnap an entire village of humanoids to raise as trade goods?

At least they were only xvarts. They are actually a decent choice. They usually give birth to twins, and they go into heat twice a year. They grow twice as humans and I can double that with an aging curse. They are also naturally chaotic. Meaning their souls wouldn't go to Hell normally. Which makes the valuable goods to the devils.

It was even better once you considered altering them. After all, all the skeletons the kobolds were going to practice on and use needed to come from somewhere. While the templates don't affect the souls, adding ogre-blood and dragon blood to them will make the skeletons that much more powerful.

Just as potentially useful, but in a very different manner were myconids. Discovered when the lower levels of our base breached the Underdark, they've been incorporated to provide support. Since they gain protection and the opportunity to flourish under our rule, they don't seem to mind. In fact they seem downright grateful.

It seems myconids only socialize within their social spheres and the leaders are always left alone. While it means they can keep watch, it's considered a tremendous sacrifice. I didn't get rid of them, instead I replaced them. Instead of leaders, they now were brewers. They didn't labor in the fields or stand guard, they brewed potions for me using their racial abilities.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The myconids in particular remind me something. A memory fragment. A particularly strong one too. Mass production. Ingredient farms. Specialized production lines. In other words, plans for a magic item factory.

It was one of the more common base concepts I tended to use back when I played DnD. Figuring out a way to cheaply and quickly mass produce some kind of magic item. I considered it boring to use the exact same idea each time. Besides my characters, while usually wizards, still had different specialties and personalities. I had to come up with a method that made sense for them.

The more I thought about it the more excited I got about it. Every empire that mass produced magic items before had become great. The Imaskari, Netherese and a number of others. Sure they all fell, but it was never due to a lack of magic. And well, I doubt anything I do can stop divine intervention. So no point worrying about it.

I have three methods available to me. The first was the traditional one. Figure out a magic item I find useful, all the steps involved in it's creation and them create an entire production line. Often times it involves several DM calls since I tend to combine effects and ideas in unusual ways.

Which means I have no idea what will work. Normally I have a read on the DM and an idea of what he'll let me get away with. I can hardly stop by Mystra's home to talk with her. Besides I'm pretty sure godhood changes a person. Mystra might not have ever been mortal either considering it's likely Mystryl created her.

Although. Speaking of godhood. Wasn't Savras currently imprisoned? He gets freed by after the Godswar, but Sylune should have him. I think. Worth checking out. A favor from a god is no small thing.

Maybe later. From what I remember Sylune is also in Shadowdale. Which is where Elminster lives. No way am I going to fight two chosen of Mystra. Or more if the other sisters get called in. Besides the Simbul had always been one of my favorite characters. Killing her sister probably won't do me any favors.

So I need a lot of information on different manufacturing processes. Racial lore and as many schematics for magic items as possible. Which... won't be easy to get a hold of.

Shelve it for later then.

The second method was consumable items. Centered around two spells in particular. Thankfully I can still remember them. I should, I used them often enough when I was gaming. In fact they were often the first two sixth level spells I picked up, even before disintegrate or true seeing.

Shalantha's Delicate Disk was my first choice. The spell enchants an gold faberge egg that can store any single spell inside it indefinitely. And gold is one thing I have in abundance. Thankfully I can still research spells, even if I'm currently unable to cast them.

Even if I can't, my bone nagas can still cast sixth level spells. I just need to raise a new one. In fact I should raise one with a spell list designed to handle manufacturing for me.

My second spell was Hamagass's Sproutstaff. I had planned on going beyond the original version. A higher level version that allows me to shift more charges into the resulting wand. I've never had a DM disallow it. After all it was almost criminally wasteful in almost any circumstances. This was the exception.

Given just how easy I find creating the spell is I'm betting Mystra doesn't have a problem with it either. After all I do plan on mass producing wands for sale. Which means I'll be spreading magic around. And since they're spell trigger items only caster's will be able to use them. Which should either prompt more people to study magic or at least give existing casters a better chance as survival.

Mystra's support is confirmed when the current Magister drops by. If have absolutely no idea who he is, but he was flat out terrifying. He casually teleported into my base completely ignoring the delaying and redirection wards. Then he hands me an envelope and tells me don't cock it up.

The letter inside was short. It was also from the high priest of the church of Mystra. It didn't say anything, but it contained two schematics. The first for a Staff of the Magi and the second for a rod that can cast stone shape once per minute. Both were perfect. Exactly what I needed for my plans.

It's a bit terrifying to know the Goddess of all magic is watching over my shoulder. Not even the fact that she's encouraging me is that comforting. After all where one diety gazes, others are sure to notice. It also might be a warning to stop trading with devils. After all, I had been about to start summoning more Sibriexes to trade for those very same items.

Hopefully Mystra only figured out my plans from my habit of talking out loud. Growing up as the only creature with an advanced educated made for a fairly lonely childhood. My siblings tried, but they lacked the sheer amount of information I grew up with. And while my former life's habit of researching everything benefits me now, it did not make it any easier for me to relate to what amounted to ignorant savages.

Just in case I've cursed myself. It's a mild one. It makes my unable to mutter without deliberate effort on my part. Talking to myself will now require concentration. And since that will break my train of thought I shouldn't randomly sprout my ideas out loud anymore.

Although thoughts of keeping Mystra happy do inspire me to work on a method to spread magical knowledge easier. A quill of rapid scivening, modified to specialize in writing down spells, proves to be my answer. It forgoes the bonus to forgery to write down spells in only a minute per spell level.

It wasn't cheap, but it seemed like a sound investment considering it was the goddess of magic involved. So many of my plans revolve around magic. Better to keep on her good side.

Which does remind me that Midnight is not nearly so understanding once she becomes the goddess of magic. I need to be careful so that she doesn't cripple my projects out of shortsightedness.

Herask is busy over the next couple of months arranging large purchases for me. Thanks to my library I know exactly what materials I need in order to create the items I want. And given how quickly nagas mature, I don't even have to wait until I've leveled to start. Besides, it wasn't like undead can lose constitution when crafting, unlike me.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Koger just grunted when the cabin boy stopped by to let him know they had reached Orlumbor. He didn't care much for this mission, but he wasn't ranked high enough to be able to tell the Tyrant of Mintarn no. So here he was, sailing to a miserable barren bit of rock in the middle of nowhere.

Well formally barren he supposes. All the wizards had agreed on the results of the scrying spells. Somehow the entire island was now overgrown. Nothing impressive, except for the fact that there weren't any humans anymore. Which means over a thousand folks just upped and vanished.

He didn't like it. The seas were getting dangerous nowadays. Some might argue that the loss of Luskan made it safer. It didn't. Without knowing who did it people were running scared. Everyone worried if they were next.

They were also all trying to take advantage of the void left behind. Every city that could, was sending out their ships all over. Neverwinter was closest to them, but even Baldur's Gate was sending ships.

Crazies and idiots seemed to be drawn to that kind of atmosphere. And some of them were employed. People like his current captain. Pike was both crazy and dumb, always talking about raiding Waterdahvian ships. Sometimes even doing so.

He paid well though. The only reason Koger hadn't quit when Captain Pike had volunteered for this trip was the pay. Volunteer? Who does that? They're pirates! They raid nice safe targets for lots of money.

Of course most of them then turn around and spend it all on alcohol. Idiots are everywhere. Not him though. No he means to retire nice and comfortably.

Which is why he needs so much gold. Opening up a tavern is expensive. More if you mean to have it staffed by clockwork automatons and build magical drink dispensers. Sure it tastes like piss, but it was free! Well, outside all the costs he'd already sunk into it at least.

Figuring out how to alter a Create Food and Drink spell to create beer was not easy. It was incredibly hard to do without making it so powerful he couldn't cast it and even then it wasn't high quality. But it was progress. And once the taps were done he'll have as much of it as he needs.

Koger's dreams of endless beer were interrupted when the ship suddenly lurched. Climbing out of his bunk he followed the others up top.

The sea looked wrong. Dark green even though it was mid day. Kind of solid too. Like some kind of giant ooze. He had never been to Orlumbor before so he wasn't sure if all the towers had been there before. Maybe added after Mintarn had tried to take over last time?

The important thing was they weren't shooting now. Which he should have expected if there weren't any people.

Koger shook his head. The whole place was creeping him out. He listens in and hears they had almost run aground. Fifty feet from shore. And inside the harbor. Now that wasn't suspicious at all.

Koger was willing turn around right then, but of course Captain Pike wasn't. He was already assembling a shore party. And of course the captain wanted him along. Not that he can complain. It was the whole reason he was hired in the first place.

Not many people were crazy enough to let a gnomish alchemist on their ship. Let alone track one down and hire him. Still Koger liked to think he'd more than pulled his weight. After all if you aren't trying to capture the ship, it's easy to blow holes in them. Same with barn doors and the like when they hit a small town.

The waters thankfully weren't some kind of giant ooze monster. No, they were choked with seaweed to the point it was like rowing through mud. Small wonder the ship had been stopped.

Seeing a glint of metal he called a halt. Carefully he probed with an oar. Clink. Metal.

Koger looked at the towers with a new perspective and swore. Those were harbor chains. They led directly to the closest tower and up into some kind of giant spigot. And seeing just how many stone towers were around, all with spigots, there was enough chains to wall this place up tighter than Waterdeep.

Everything he found was making him feel worse about this. Koger wasn't sure what happened here, but clearly someone was scared. This place was a fortress. He'd say they were paranoid, except something did cause all the people to disappear.

He was glad to hear the comforting wooden scrape as the boat brushed the docks. He felt too vulnerable sitting in the small boat. While he had enough powdered crystal to make it back, it was expensive.

Feeling his confidence returning, Koger pressed a button and started looking around as his chair unfolded. It deployed four mechanical spider legs and nimbly climbed out of the boat and it's 'arms' extended. Little more than a pair of silver tubes set into a ball turret, they hummed with the electricity contained inside.

The sound was very comforting. Sure each tube can only fire a handful of times per day. But they recharged themselves without any need for expensive reagents. As far as he was concerned, the grell were vastly superior to the gnomes in the field of alchemy.

Not an opinion that was popular back in Lantan. Still, it was better than everyone who kept criticizing his Storm Throne. So what if his Gondsman wasn't made in the image of Gond? Gondsman was only a name and clearly Gond didn't mind since Koger still had his powers.

In fact personally he thought it was down right blasphemous to be condemning him for something Gond doesn't care about. One of the many reasons he'd been exiled. And if he wasn't careful, something that might happen again.

Not everyone was as fond of his talents as his captain. The Tyrant in particular is a paranoid man and viewed him with great suspicion. To no purpose since he had no desire for the headaches ruling would bring. If he didn't know better he'd suspect this trip was a suicide mission aimed at getting rid of him.

His four soldier automatons arranged themselves around him. They were his true pride and joy. Vastly improved over the original mining version, they had been adapted for combat. And while he may have been forced to resort to a few unsavory methods the end results were well worth it.

So what if he had to sacrifice a person during the creation process? Koger was more annoyed over the fact that the person being sacrificed needed to know how to use the equipment he was providing the constructs. After all slaves were cheap.

Koger wished he had more than just four, but they were hideously expensive. Thankfully at least he had the foresight to purchase a set of dendritic armor when he had first begun. He never would have been able to afford to keep armoring his constructs otherwise.

Sure the armor meant any construct that fell overboard sank immediately, but their heavily armored forms made an enormous difference in combat. There had been several times when his constructs had been all that let them win a battle.

Sighing Koger opened his bag of holding and let loose the two clockwork mender swarms held within. The robotic insects would automatically repair all of his constructs and had proven to be worth every copper he had paid to summon them. They could even breed, meaning like the armor, he could use them freely without having to worry about money.

He didn't like revealing so much at the start, but now wasn't the time to hold back. It was also the reason he had both his homunculi climb out and take position on his throne. From there they could operate the lightning lances, leaving him free to cast spells. It was a calculated risk since if they died he'd suffer from a backlash. It was worth it though if only for the extra sets of eyes.

Koger had only made it halfway down the docks when the sounds started. The crunching of splintering wood. He looked down, but the docks seemed solid still. He still ordered everyone to hurry.

It wasn't until he heard the screams that he realized the sounds were coming from behind him. The Wave Hammer, his home away from home for the past three years, was sinking. Koger could see paler shapes in the water that reminded him of sharks. Except they didn't have fins.

He ordered one of his soldiers to go to the end of the docks. Twenty feet was a short distance for a rope. Maybe they could save some of the crew while he kept watch. The island was still making him twitchy. It was too quiet. All around you could hear the birds, but never got too close to the island. It was not a good sign.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It had taken hours for the ship to sink and they had managed to save almost all their supplies. The seaweed had helped, slowing the ship even as it tried to sink from all the holes in it. Which had been made by turtles of all things. Skeleton turtles, but still. Not exactly terrifying. At least in appearance. Effective though.

Once the ship had sunk the turtles had chased them onto shore. One of the idiots had attempted to kick one only to lose his foot when it bit him. After that everyone panicked. Their odd shells were incredibly sturdy. Not many weapons could break through them.

The crew ended up besieged, trapping on top of the crates of supplies as the turtles slowly destroyed everything. In the end his soldier automatons had solved the problem. They had enough armor to fight the turtles and their large hammers easily cracked their shells.

The worrying part was after the first two were destroyed the rest retreated. Skeleton's aren't intelligent. Which means something was controlling them. Something that was likely still here.

The night was tense, but uneventful. A single turtle tried to sneak up to the camp, but was caught by his ever vigilant constructs. The next morning they divided into parties to explore the island.

No one liked it, but they all knew the score. Without a ship they were trapped. They needed supplies if they were to survive. Maybe even find some ship building tools that had been overlooked. While the trees on the island were small, they could still be used to make rafts and such. Hopefully enough to escape.

Koger headed off with a handful of others. Progress was slow. Even though the buildings were right there, the brush had grown thick enough they had to hack their way forward. Unfortunately his constructs had their weapons fixed, so they were useless right now.

At least his homunculi were out scouting. Not that they had anything reassuring to report. The whole island was just as empty as the spells indicated. It wasn't an illusion or trick, the people really were gone.

A scream drew his attention as he saw in disbelieve as one of his brush cutters was suddenly dragged into a nearby grove. The man was easy enough to see. He was still screaming, thrashing around and impaled on several branches. The problem was no one saw what grabbed him.

They didn't have any medical supplies to waste either. Koger triggered a lightning lance to put him down. It was the least he could do. He didn't expect for the flash to outline a large thin something holding the man up. Just as suddenly the man dropped and it was gone.

Koger immediately ordered a retreat. Whatever that was it was fast.

Just in time too. Several bursts of small arrows flew out and slammed into three of his men. Two men dropped, but the last only stumbled. Despite their pace more tiny arrows rained down. The last man was hit multiple times and fell. At least his constructs didn't seem to be taking any damage.

Koger winced as he felt the backlash as one of his homunculi died. That wasn't pleasant. Wiping off the blood dripping from his nose he hissed in pain as arrows hit his arm. Koger paled. A second earlier and they would have hit him in the neck. He hunched down even as he ordered his storm throne to run.

Back on the docks Koger stared at the arrows he had pulled from his arm. They weren't arrows. They were serrated and barbed thorns. Six inch thorns. Well, that explains the lack of birds. Anything that gets too close must get shot down. That or ambushed.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

it had been a week since the Wave Hammer had sunk. Koger was feeling trapped. All the foraging parties had been ambushed. Several groups hadn't returned at all. Worse the ship's mage had been in one of them. They were safe on the docks, at least as long as they watched for turtles, but they had no shelter. The cold sea air was chilling everyone and several people had gotten sick.

At least supplies weren't a problem. With less than half the crew they had plenty to go around. And Koger could always just request a number of Create Food and Water spells when he next prayed. He was already doing so, saving his real rations for an emergency.

The danger now was each other. Without alcohol or women everyone was on edge. Several fights had already broken out and a man killed. The captain executed the killer, but that won't work forever.


	11. Defense in Depth

Chapter 11 Defense in Depth

Needing to stretch my legs I decided to start working on my swamp. Designing elaborate defenses had always been a hobby. It was refreshing to be actually able to see the things I planned come to life.

While my bone trees were good, they were only a starting point. I was starting to introduce additional creatures, but was struggling to balance them. The shocker lizards were doing amazing and flourished. The behirs, not so much. Their inbreeding had made them much less effective as surviving on their own.

I had also added umplebys and shamblers. Both species were voracious eaters so simply providing a constant stream of troll meat was enough to secure their loyalty. They weren't very bright, but did well as guards. And variety was important for ensuring my swamp was as dangerous as possible.

Just to build up their numbers I also seeded colonies of my black ants around the area. If nothing else they'll provide competition and food. They also had an interesting side effect on the area. A combination of the salt from the sea, acid mixing into the waters and the sheer amount of electrical aspected creatures seems to have altered the weather.

The sky is almost permanently overcast and lightning has become a fairly standard occurrence. It makes me wonder if naming the place Dromund Kaas was prophetic and just a massive coincidence.

To encourage the creatures to stick close to their food sources and not wander around and kill each other I started mass producing Horns of Fog. Blown continuously by zombies, once I have enough of them the entire swamp will be permanently shrouded.

I had Fogsight goggles, which ignored fog, mist or smoke made for each of my siblings and tattooed on the naga before refeeding him to the deepspawn. After all if my bone nagas were to be my guardians, they needed to be able to see their enemies.

Honestly I was fairly satisfied. Between the creatures, bone nagas and environment my swamp was becoming a deathtrap. Feeling secure, I decided to move on to other areas.

I had already started on Orlumbor in a sense. The defenses there were fairly thorough. When I checked on the island all I found was a single mad gnome cooped up in one of the towers. He had almost a score of automatons of a design I didn't recognize protecting him. It was a nice cozy setup.

I ended up hiring him. Well more like showed up, terrified him and then made him an offer he was too scared to refuse. Not like it was a bad thing. After all he'd be safe, have plenty of funds and materials provided to him and all the freedom to conduct research that he wants. Especially those mechanical troops.

The soldier automatons weren't pure constructs. They were basically a blend of construct and undead. It was a very clever way of getting around the programming issues the automatons normally had. I can't wait to see what else he'll create.

I have the perfect place for him too. With Daggerford gone there aren't any nearby settlements of any note. The Trade Way has already started shifting away from my swamp, merchants scared of it's reputation beating a new path. The only reason it hasn't completely shifted was the lack of bridges upriver.

Mechanisburg, because what else would I name a new city founded by a someone using clockwork soldiers, would provide that bridge. Place it a few miles upriver and it'll nicely fill in the area between my current swamp and the new one forming next to the Misty Forest.

Granted, it's not much right now. Merely a single stone bridge with a few short towers to protect it and collect tolls. But it'll grow rapidly. Especially with the limitless resources I can provide him.

Since I can't really do much there I move on. And since I was right next to it, I focus on the stretch of swamp formerly guarded by the hobgoblins. The destruction of their castle had caused rubble to rain down across the area. Instead of destroying the newly forming swamp it had improved it.

All the piles of stone had channeled the river into dozens of new paths and tripled the area I had previously expected it to cover. It was almost picturesque in a ancient ruins and reclaiming nature sort of way. The only issue was it was spreading too well. It wouldn't be long before the road from Secomber to the Trade Way was washed away.

Which... actually could work out to my benefit. I had placed Mechanisburg next to the swamp already. And it even had a toll bridge. A toll road wouldn't be much of a stretch. The swamp would only cover fifteen, maybe twenty miles of road? Easy enough to set up a fortified road there.

The toll road only took a few days to get started. Basically a pair of walls twenty five feet high and ten wide ran along the section of road. The road was widened to a twenty feet across and paved in solid stone. I raided an orc camp for skulls so Koger could make enough automatons to patrol along the walls.

Every hundred feet was a pair of towers that housed a garrison. Well eventually. Right now the road is only a hundred feet long between two pairs of towers. The towers hold staircases that grant access to the top of the wall and have a ballista mounted on top. None of it was meant to hold off a serious assault, just roaming monsters and bandits.

The garrisons would mostly be automatons, but modified to use different weapons. While the hammers were very effective, the reach of a telescoping long spear meant they could stab people trying to climb up. Most however will be armed with heavy repeating crossbows with an extended clip, which will still be lighter than the hammer they normally use.

The garrisons also have other constructs. Clockwork mender swarms to repair everything and clockroaches to use their acid to keep the road clean. I plan on a gatehouse to collect fees as well as house more serious defenses on either end, although that will be after the swamp overtakes the road and I can justify charging tolls.

To encourage people to not contest my control of the road I started planting monsters in the area. I scattered needlefolk thickly across the region. Besides Secomber, the elves of Misty Vale are the ones most likely to cause me problems. The needlefolk should keep them busy. Especially since I made sure the scatter some seeds across the entire Misty Forest.

I also created what I was calling black groves. A small black tower shaped like a boabab tree. The squat building housed a bone naga and shadow asp. A bound troll would provide both with plenty of resources. Around the entrance of the dungeon was a handful of umbral banyans.

The bone naga has a few different spells. Instead of the focus on mist spells it has Ray of Enfeeblement, illusions and Vortex of Teeth. The spells had been modified to look like creatures as well. The ray looks like a swarm of wasps and vortex looks like a swarm of bats. The illusions will work especially well since I used a variant of illusionary wall to create fake trees throughout the swamp.

Deep underneath each tower was a small two layer dungeon. The bottom one was to house a tribe of xvarts. Not my version, but just the normal ones. Since the undead shadows created by the shadow asp couldn't move more than sixty feet away the entrances and rooms were all at least that far away.

The top layer was a also contained a small maze and was colonized by myconids. As plants, nothing in the grove can hurt them. And the xvarts will avoid the area because the undead can reach them there.

I also added a few other creatures to each grove. Skiurids, large black life-draining squirrels, would fit in perfectly with the shadows and other creatures. And both the dire bats and dire rates came with the tribe of xvarts I found.

Given the low light levels and blue humanoids I decided to name the swamp Umbarra. And since I had named it such, I felt it only proper they had a centipede creature. After all the centipede tanks were one of the very few images I recall of Umbarra.

Honestly the centipede was probably the hardest part of the place to set up. First I had to locate some of the appropriate size, which for me was about twenty feet. Just small enough a deepspawn can still copy them.

Then came the improvements. Ogre blood wasn't compatible, but dragon's blood was. I chose fang dragon since there wasn't any real energy effects being used in Umbarra and the damage boost was nice. A few more modifications to further enhance the damage all the way to 3d6. Not amazing, but not horrible.

The needlefolk were the next to be modified. They required quite a bit of sunlight to survive normally. Dragon's blood along with the dungeon bred rituals negated that in return for turning them into predators. However, meat was one thing I could supply in abundance.

Or should I say the xvarts could supply. After all they make for terrible archers and even if they weren't a bow is only deals half the damage of the needlefolk's thorns. Not to mention the thorns do even more damage thanks to the needlefolk's high strength.

Thanks to the dragon's blood it was possible to include the chameleon template, turning them all but invisible. Then I use the giant sizing rituals to bring them back to five feet, increasing the base damage of their thorns to 3d8. I also decide to name them Thornwalkers since I'm very likely to use them again and after three templates they're hardly the same species.

I still fully intend for Umbarra to become a lizardfolk colony. But I lack the numbers for it now and like Dromund Kaas plan to set up the real lairs underground. Besides, it wasn't nearly ready. Only when Umbarra covered at least a hundred square miles would I be satisfied it was relatively safe.

One of the issues though is winter. While fey cherry trees had solved the freezing problem in Dromund Kaas, the other swamps had no such protection. The swamp I had started north of Yartar and even the one on the Winding River had both froze over last winter. The water had then spilled over, flooding the nearby ground. Then when it thawed the ground was just soggy and started eroding quickly. Only some quick spell work prevented the river from just carving a new channel.

So in Umbarra I decided to solve the problem the same way it did in Neverwinter. Using the ruins of the fortress I dug a few false underground water lines. I diverted a significant portion of the river through the area and placed a number of permanent heat metal enchantments there.

The heated water spread through the new swamp and when it met the cool air created a light layer of mist. Nothing as dense as Dromund Kaas, but it just felt right. Overall I was very satisfied with my second base.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Koger does more for me than just provide me with the inspiration for Mechanisburg. His automatons reminded me of one of my favorite constructs. Stone Wolves were very basic constructs that were easily mass produced. I had fallen in love with them less from their effectiveness and more because I had been reading a book at the time that featured them.

Stat wise they were virtually identical with zombies. Worse in many ways since don't benefit from any of the tricks I've come up with to enhance undead. I guess it makes sense, the original ritual was based on animate dead after all. They also could no longer fly or swim due to their weight. Still the defenses are the real draw.

Being stone did have an advantage. Unlike zombies they have a static natural armor bonus equivalent to full plate armor with a shield. Combined with it's resistance to any piercing and slashing damage they make for great shock troops. And the prime benefit is the fact that they are constructs and thus have no control limit.

Thankfully both spells required for the ritual to create stone wolves were low level. I was easily able to create a single sixth level spell that replaced the entire process. There were benefits and drawbacks to this.

The benefit, which I considered amazing, was that I wasn't restricted to only wolves. Any medium sized animal skull could be used. Why only medium I have no idea. The drawback was minor, being that I could only create one per casting.

Still, it was more than enough to inspire me to force some changes on the xvarts. First I took the dire rats they had and used a minor ritual to increase their size. Just enough that they'll grow to medium size. It was expensive buying so many rituals from the devils, but having options comes in handy in cases like this one.

The only other template I can apply them to them and still have them usable for the Stone Beast spell is warbeast. More a matter of extreme training and conditioning, it's sadly not inheritable. Still since I was planning on paying the xvarts for the skulls I guess I can pay more for the trained ones. And the trading benefits the xvarts as well. It's a nice way to funnel equipment to them without being obvious. I can even profit at the same time.

As opposed to the size increasing rituals the dungeon bred rituals are much more useful for me. There are plenty of creatures that were just a little too large to create stone beasts from. Creatures much more powerful than you'd expect. A dungeon bred dire wolf is vastly superior to a regular wolf despite being the same size. I'm just annoyed most of the dinosaurs are way too big to treat the same way.

It was also too bad I couldn't use them as additional guardians for the swamps. The heavy constructs, they are made of stone after all, just sink into the mud. So it looks like the stone beasts are going to be used the same way as my doomguards. Collect in case of emergencies and to be deployed in large armies when doing so. Pity.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

With the glaring failure of the stone beasts I decided to turn back to undead. After all incorporeal undead just fly around. They can't sink into mud. Well they can, but they can't get trapped.

Brainstorming was almost a literal term for me. I had long since created a version of the bardic memory modification spell. The issue was digging up the appropriate memories. Thankfully I had played DnD for so many years that I had decent odds of getting at least something useful.

I've been using it for years and I tried to make organized notes of everything I found. It was there I found a number of suggestions. Enough that I was kicking myself for not looking at my notes earlier.

Two of my ideas I decided to hold for later. After all if I was going to create distinct swamps, I needed defenders that matched. And they had both given me ideas for future set ups. It was the last two that I liked the best.

Flameskulls, while not incorporeal, were actually one of my first suggestions written down. Flying fire wielding undead that regenerated. They weren't very powerful, but were a useful supplement. And while you can create them with a normal Create Undead spell now, I much prefer to develop a specialized spell for it. After all I can't recall anyone creating them in third edition. All the examples were in ancient ruins.

The new spell didn't take long to create. Almost as if it wanted to be made. While it ended up requiring a fairly exotic component, but it may even be better this way. The Elemental Skulls as I call them are based off a half-dragon sorcerer skull that knows evocation spells of the appropriate element and at least third level. Very specific, but the benefits were worth it.

I used trolls of course. Take a young troll, turn it into a half-dragon and them power level him. Use charms and suggestions to have him become a sorcerer and done. A few curses to turn him into a vegetable and he was ready to harvest.

I have no idea why evil people ignore that last step. It's like they delight in proving how cliched evil they can be. It's idiotic and worse inefficient. You have to waste more resources securing the victim and then there is always the potential for them to break free and come after you for revenge.

If my trolls ever have the curses broken, they'll still remember me as a friend who gave them power in return for serving as guards. I won't have to find them. They'll likely just walk up to me and report for work. Simple and elegant.

I can now create six types of elemental skulls. I had only expected the basic four, acid, cold, fire and lightning. It seems the dragon type influences it more than I realized. Sonic and force were also possible, which just gives me more ideas.

For now though I start scattering skockskulls across Dromund Kaas. All of the versions seem to glow brightly so I use the normal flameskulls for Umbarra but place a permanent blacklight on each of them. Large orbs of pure darkness that leaves burn marked victims seems much better than brightly obvious enemies.

The second type of undead, watchghosts, were perfect. Take a sentient being, cast the appropriate spell and instant guardian. I had even done much of the research to create a spell for just them since I couldn't remember anyone creating them in third edition. The best part was since the ghosts were based off the creature sacrificed they can be made very distinct from each other.

Herask didn't take long to buy me a few dozen gladiator slaves. Well, relatively speaking. Calimshan has a huge slave trade, but it did take him weeks to sail there and back. Thankfully I can just teleport to his ship and bring the slaves I wanted back early.

The first one I chose was a dark skinned male half-elf. After all, if I was going to create fake Shadar Kai, they needed to look the part. Then I proceeded to heavily tattoo him. I imbued him with a large number of spell-like abilities. Blur, Mirror Image, Lutzaen's Frequent Jaunt, Mage Armor and my favorite, a new spell that creates spiked chain that allows them to channel their touch abilities through it.

He was fairly young, so hadn't been given more than basic training in a variety of weapons, but nothing specialized. The entire time I was having him tattooed I also had him power leveling, killing things with a spiked chain.

I managed to get him young enough that I could get him to dual-class. A rogue, fighter combination felt perfect from what I knew of the Shadar Kai. Without very high level monsters available, despite the time it took he still didn't get any higher than a sixth level in rogue and fifth in fighter.

I still considered him a success and happily fed him to a deepspawn. Soon I'll have squads of the fake Shadar Kai watchghosts guarding each black grove in Umbarra. The best part was since they're intelligent I can leave fairly thorough instructions.

For Dromand Kaas I used a lizardfolk. After all, this was still known as the Lizard Marsh. I chose Kodrih's best student. At some point he had stopped working with the hobgoblins and had managed to convince a handful of the new breed of lizardfolk to follow his example and they were all training ferociously.

I held a tournament between them and selected the winner. He was then heavily tattooed with Stoneskin, Improved Mage Armor, Bull's Strength and the ability to summon a shortspear that channels his touch abilities. Offensively I also added freezing fog and lightning fog.

Since he wasn't human or a cheaty existence like I was he couldn't dual-class. However he had been training for far longer and like most of the new generation, had already been power leveling for some time. And an eighth level kensai was nothing to scoff at.

It feels a bit ironic just how useful all the time I 'wasted' playing Baldur's Gate is coming in handy. Still, I'm probably going to focus on using human watchghosts for future guardians. The ability to dual-class is just too useful not to take advantage of.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I of course make sure to create few staves with all of my new guardian creation spells. I then restrict them to only lizardfolk and worshipers of Essylliss. Might as well pay homage to my patron diety. I also add a holy symbol into each one. If they ever do get stolen, it'd make it easier to retrieve. After all other than the Imaskari I don't know anyone who can hide from the gaze of a deity.

With the spells secured in a staff and more being created I decide to continue expanding. I've essentially conquered several areas already. All I needed to do now was secure them.

Orlumbor is first. I had already decided to call it Mon Calamari and was ready to start getting it ready for colonization. And in truth it's already pretty much secure. The siege crabs though convinced me it needed more. Much more. If I was going to be facing underwater kingdoms I needed massive defenses.

The first part of the defenses are barriers. Which usually means walls. Being an island that's a little trickier. Halruuan marble is a fairly well known substance. Given my background it doesn't take me long to figure out how to alter the spell to generate much more natural coral growths, which is simply called Coral Growth. Soon enough a massive reef is growing around the island, extending for hundreds of feet.

Since I have no intention of colonizing the sea I then proceed to turn the entire area into a death trap. While shadow asps can't survive underwater, it's their venom that creates bound undead. The shadows can be made from any living creature as well.

Since I was calling the place Mon Calamari it seemed only right that I used an appropriate creature. Giant squid are remarkably easy to breed in large numbers given a virtually unlimited food supply. The young grow at an astounding rate. Which means I soon have hundreds of shadow squid and turtles all protecting my coral reef. And since sound travels better underwater I also add screamingskulls.

The beams of pure sonic energy should theoretically be more effective. They aren't, because that would make sense and magic seems to hate logic. Or at least physics. But at least they aren't blocked by the water.

Finally I add trident specialized human watchghosts. Rather than personal spells I focus more on battlefield support. Coral Growth, Augment Object, Wall of Ice, Hallucinatory Terrain, an underwater version of Solid Fog, and Evard's Black Tentacles. Not to say they don't have any personal spells. I gave them Improved Invisibility and the spell that creates their trident.

Above water I had a number of slender towers rise out of the water. Skeletal giants manned the tops along with small piles of iron balls. Skeleton archers manned the lower floors behind minor wards to keep out moisture. Finally a bone naga was placed just below the sea surface although it could move around. The towers formed two rings and were connected to each other by harbor chains.

Only the harbor was kept accessible although that term was misleading. The route had been extended to four times it's original length and was protected by a plethora of towers. I have no intention of turning Orlumbor into a major port. Most, if not all, the traffic here is going to be mine.

From what I remember, islands aren't connected to the Underdark except maybe in the very lowest levels. Which means I have miles of rock that I can convert into living space. I was determined to protect such a precious resource.

I had intended to bring in more defenders to the island, but seeing how quickly the giant modified praying mantises were evolving changed my mind. Insects naturally grow and breed quickly. The aging curse I tend to use on everything only sped that up. And faced with an environment without any competition and limitless food the population had exploded.

Of course even fifty square miles of land wasn't enough to contain an increase from only a few hundred to tens of thousands. And the bone nagas could only provide so much food. So they competed with the only things there. Each other.

Without any other factors influencing them, the largest and strongest dominated. And then they bred. And it began all over again. Even better, the young used the towers as shelter, crawling in through the arrow slits. Once inside they fought fiercely with each other for the limited space. Only to leave once they got larger. The adults had already adopted the idea and were building their egg cases on the sides of the towers.

I'm not extremely curious to see how far the praying mantises will evolve. Not only do I not add any more creatures, I build hundreds of additional towers, spreading them out across the interior. I also modify the design of the towers to house a lot more of the young. After all it was the end result I cared about, not how strong they were starting off.

I do end up adding thornwalkers to the island, but in a very limited capacity. The skeleton archers were annoying to deal with except as a horror tactic. So I took them out from the towers. I remodeled those areas of the tower to small gardens and planted thornwalkers there. I also made sure the arrow slits were too small for their seeds to go through. Now I don't have to worry about feathers and iron and string and everything else needed for archers. I just add an extra troll or two and done.

The swamp I made along the Winding river turns out not to need any work at all. In hindsight it was obvious that a place right next to a place called the Troll Hills would end up infested in them. At least it means I won't need to work on it. The scrags seem to be working on expanding it by themselves.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Truthfully expanding is only a pipe dream without much larger numbers. Which means I need more lizardfolk. And after thinking about it, I know exactly where to get them.

The largest and most well known lizardfolk society was the Kingdom of Kethid. Found all the way down south next to Halruaa, it was known because it rented out mercenary companies of light infantry. Despite the distance, most of the contracts for the Servants of the Royal Egg are up here in the north.

Their expensive, but gold is meaningless to me other than the worry of attracting too much attention. Herask is easily able to hire three companies for me, for a total of twelve hundred lizardfolk. One of the few good things about normal lizardfolk is that they're largely free of gender bias, meaning there should be plenty of females.

Now all I needed to do was trap them.

It turned out to be easier than I anticipated. I'm not really sure how they're training or raised, but they seem to be lacking in any kind of initiative. They obediently marched into an obvious trap of a camp. They didn't even seem to realize it.

It was kind of disappointing. I expected them to figure it out and rebel. I had layers of traps, ambushes and had even brought most of my bone nagas over. All for nothing. It's pathetic. No wonder Essylliss wants to replace them.

I capture about five hundred females. A bit less than I figured, but more than enough to satisfy me. I then have Herask send a panicking message back to Kethid. He rambled over horrible losses and desperate need for more troops. He sent along the penalty fees and enough gold to hire two more companies.

It's nice when someone's famous for being greedy. King Ghassis was infamous for taking bribes and not caring about his troops other than to collect hazard pay fees. I got my troops in record time. And an additional four hundred females.

The males were still useful. They didn't even need to be interrogated. They freely answered all my questions on how they were raised and trained. It was much simpler than I had realized.

I guess I'm spoiled by my siblings. I know normal lizardfolk aren't as intelligent as we are. And growing up in such barbaric conditions doesn't really contribute to intellectual growth. But to know they're essentially farmed like sheep? That's a new low.

Not that I'm not going to take advantage of just how easily trainable my poor cousins are. I set aside a dozen of the strongest males to breed my own mamelukes. The rest I trade to the Baatezu. As demon worshipers, they're a valued commodity.

A thousand souls buys me quite a bit. I'm particular it buys me is a very powerful simulacrum ritual that allows me to target non-humanoids. It's expensive, requiring large amounts of powdered gems. It's also perhaps the best spell I currently possess.

It's also eighth level, which means I can't use it. Well not yet. My spider farm has grown large enough for me to start harvesting and I've been gaining a steady stream of experience ever since. I'm still impatient though and coupled with my recent dealings gave me an idea.

It doesn't take long to prepare a suitable demon trap. Two inverted circles, one to summon with and the second so it can't escape once it's unbound. An additional dimension lock and a few other protective spells and I'm ready.

For everyone without a cheaty artifact weapon, high tier demons are dangerous opponents. And if I fought one head to head it might even have a chance. Which is why I cheat even more. After all I just wanted to win. I didn't care how I did so.

So I set a trap. I have a bone naga summon a maralith. Then I dive. The fog cloud in the room prevents her from seeing me until I cross the edge of the circle and by then it's too late. Between blindsight, fogsight and true strike my lance slams into the demon. And that was it. A single strike and done. Then I get to pour the surge of power into my wizard class.

The Troll's Regeneration buff triggers and keeps her from dying and thus being banished. Which means I can then sell her to a devil. And that's how I keep a demon from holding a grudge.

I don't always summon maraliths. Occasionally the devils request another type. But maraliths are by far my most common target. Mostly I don't want anything that can fly. While I can fight in the air, I'm not comfortable doing so and the summoning circle doesn't prevent flight. That and they are also very powerful. Not much point summoning something weak.

It's feels a bit ironic that I gain a method of creating as many spare bodies as I need right after I hire several companies of mercenaries for the exact same thing. Still I suppose simulacrum deepspawn were a bit of a longshot. I'm still a bit impressed with myself for remembering to ask for an advanced aging curse and a few other items after hearing about it.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The spider farms didn't just benefit me. They also meant I could now afford to power level the rest of the slaves I had Herask buy me. Unfortunately that means I need to actually plan out in detail how I'm going to expand.

So what planets fit? Even just barely. Dagobah obviously. Felucia too. Maybe Dathomir? The whole voodoo thing would fit the Mere of Dead Men.

Actually how many swamps are there? High Moor, Marsh of Chelimber, Marsh of Tun, Evermoors and Rethild. That's not too many. And there is no way I'm going to the first two. I have no desire to face a family of dracoliches or the Onyx Tower.

So really only three places and I just so happened to have three in mind.

Dathomir is the easiest. Nightsisters had that weird bow so archery training. As for the other two... I have no idea. Hmm. Maybe go with weapon styles and find a planet that matches?

Let's see. Maybe axes? Gamorreans use those. So Gamorrea and grab an orc to use as the template.

That wasn't too hard. Something fancy this time... like a double bladed sword. And since sith like them I have a few choices. Yavin I guess. After all it's the first time in the lore a double lightsaber is mentioned that I can remember.

I remember now! The felucians used that bone sword! It looked like a giant jawbone I think. So a falchion I guess. Nothing really going to look like the plant people so maybe a native american headdress, but a plant like one?

Planning them out, and snatching an orc, takes more time than it does to power level them. Of course tattooing them is still the slowest part. At least the time it takes to create them gives me plenty of time to plan them out.


	12. Playing Around

Chapter 12 Playing Around

Kelleth had been born on a farm, but he had never been satisfied with such a peaceful life. He craved more. Adventure, magic, wealth and glory. Unfortunately he didn't have the aptitude for magic nor the patience for prayer. So magic was out from the start.

He had also been born intelligent enough to realize he lacked the skills that would make him more than a servant or follower. So his first goal was to get those skills. Which is why he applied to the Lances of Leilon.

They didn't really fit his image of adventurers, but they could at least teach him the basics. They used all kinds of weapons and rode on patrols to keep the roads cleared. It would be a good place to get his start. A stepping stone towards launching his adventuring career.

That had been five years ago.

Training for the Lances had been the hardest thing he ever did. They practiced for hours with different weapons. Every Lance had to know how to use a sword, lance and crossbow. Worse they had to be able to use them while mounted and armored.

He had never realized how much chain mail weighed. Especially after a day in the saddle. He had seen adventurers sometimes wearing even more armor. It hurt just thinking about doing the same.

Still riding patrols was better than guard duty. Kelleth understood how important it was. The mines provided over half the income for the town, but it was terribly boring job.

Once he finished training he had made some friends and they signed on for an extra year to get more experience. After all it'd be good practice for later.

The first time he fought a troll was a nightmare. The damned thing wouldn't go down no matter how many bolts they hit it with. One of them had even charged the thing and impaled with his lance. The troll didn't even flinch, just ignored it and started clawing at him. And just like that he lost a friend.

They escaped since it couldn't keep up with their horses, but it was a bitter experience. Kelleth finally realized just how little he knew and started studying everything he could. He made sure to carry oil and silver and iron and a dozen other small items that could help. He trained harder than ever before.

Two months later he lost another friend.

A group of bandits was ambushing a wagon. One of them got off a lucky shot. His friend went down with an arrow in his neck. If the arrow didn't kill him, falling off his horse did.

That's when Kelleth finally realized the truth. Life out here really dangerous. No matter who you were, how well prepared, anyone can die at any time. And adventurers took the most chances. And paid the highest price.

Looking around and checking the entry logs and guest lists it didn't take him long to put the clues together. Adventurers usually died. They would scrape together some gear, maybe get some training and sign with some fancy name they came up with. Then they would go out.

They usually didn't return. At least not all of them.

Kelleth had plenty of examples too. Leilon wasn't a very large town, but it was fairly attractive to adventurers just starting off. While places like Undermountain in Waterdeep were available, they also had reputations as very dangerous. New adventurers liked starting off in smaller placed like Leilon.

In many ways Leilon was perfect. There were a series of mines protected by a fortified camp a days ride to the east. They were popular with groups with a dwarf since Leilon rewarded news of a new vein of ore. Just a bit north was an old caravan route. Exotic Longsaddle could be reached by anyone how managed to get past the orcs along the way. And of course there was the swamp.

The Mere of Dead Men was by far the largest attraction. It ran right up against the cobblestone road and held a number of large ruins. There was even a dragon. Several groups had met him and since he didn't have a terrifying reputation loads of would-be dragon slayers tried him. There was also rumors of stranger and worse things in the there, but he had never found any reliable accounts.

What Kelleth had run into was quite enough. The history books said the swamp was magical, which everyone seemed to agree with. How else did it run right up to the road, but no further? And then there were the periodic groups of zombies that wandered out. And since you couldn't ride there, bandits liked to hide in there.

No. Being a Lance was more than enough excitement for him. He'd been a Lance for years now and was already a captain. His friends had left to try being adventurers. He hadn't heard from them in years. They were all likely dead. No. He'll leave adventuring to others. He preferred his much safer life. Although safer seemed relative in these times.

Luskan had been destroyed in a massive assault a few years back. It was rebuilding, but it seems every city was hiring mages for protection. There was talk of some kind of hobgoblin army marching around and raising fortresses as well. And then there was the burning of Daggerford. Dark times. And ones that may be closer than he'd like.

The swamp was changing. There was obviously something in there since Kelleth had never heard of a bandit groups lasting more than half a year. But recently they seem to be avoiding it completely. It'd been over a year since a bandit group hid in the swamps. What replaced them wasn't better though.

Ants didn't sound so bad on a report. Until you see them. Then you see that they're six feet long and covered in thick armor that has tiny ridges that kind of look like scales. Their stingers and jaws drip acid and they roamed in large packs.

Thankfully the ants didn't seem keen on expanding. Not that he felt safe around them. He had seen how easily a swarm of them had taken down a troll. It was honestly enough for him to almost feel bad for it.

The sound of a horn broken his line of thought. Kelleth froze, as did the rest of the patrol. The call patterns had been relentlessly drilled into them. That one was an evacuation order though. It was supposed to be used for district fires and such. Why was a patrol using it?

Before he could relax and blame a dumb rookie, the reason become obvious. A thunderous crash marked the entrance of a full sized dragon.

Kelleth's horse froze. Not that he was doing any better. Then he realized the dragon wasn't charging. It was rolling. He could see numerous giant ants all swarming over it. Vines and reeds suddenly stretched and attempted to snare it. It broke free, but the momentary pause was enough for something to get in front of it.

It looked like a tiny dragon. Well, relatively. It was still around nine feet tall. But it was shaped more like a person. He'd think it was a lizardfolk except for the size and wings. It was armored and wielding a spear and shield too.

Maybe one of those demon lizardfolk from down south? Wasn't there some kind of gossip about another dragon there too?

Maybe they're all bastards of a dragon and hunt them for revenge?

Kelleth's bardic thoughts were interrupted when the dragon charged. The dragon person crouched down. The crazy thing was going to try and block it with it's shield! He was tempted to cry out a warning when suddenly the spear flew forwards.

No.

Not flew. It grew fast enough he thought it had been thrown. And instead of a needle, the dragon was now facing a forty feet spike.

Kelleth winced as the spear shattered. The dragon was moving too fast to be stopped by just wood. It was screaming though. The spearhead had stabbed it deep in the shoulder.

It reared up only to fall when a second giant spear smashed into it's side. He hadn't even seen the other dragon person. The dragon fell over, but was struggling to its feet when a third one appeared. It faded into view in midair and slammed a third spear into the dragon's eye. The dragon collapsed and when the vines lashed out again didn't twitch as they dragged it back into the swamp.

Well that wasn't worrying at all.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Kelleth really wasn't sure how he ended up with his current assignment. Sure he knows getting more information is important. Hell, he was the one to point out the dragon people things fit the description from the survivors of Daggerford.

Hiring the Skullfire Mages wasn't a bad choice. They had a reputation for collateral damage, but in a swamp that was actually a bonus. Sure, they're irritation. They can afford to be with how powerful they are. Besides, with how dangerous the world was getting Leilon needed a trump card. Even a double edged one was better than nothing.

Kelleth admits they're reputation was also likely exaggerated. After all, if they really were as reckless and sadistic as people said they would never have warded him against fire 'just in case'. Still doesn't mean I wants to go into the swamp.

Sadly he didn't have a choice. Leilon wanted a trusted set of eyes to report back and no one volunteered. So as the youngest guard captain in the Lances, he was assigned. Now if only he could get Jara, the leader of the Skullfire Mages, would stop flirting with him. She was really pretty, but the way she kept her fingers constantly lit on fire made him way too nervous to appreciate it.

That first step off the road into the swamp was nerve wracking. He kept imaging all kinds of horrible things leaping out at him. It was a bit of a let down that he only got his boots wet.

And of course he was the only one getting wet. Damn mages. Kelleth had never regretted his lack of magical talent so much as he did right now. Forced to slog through the marsh as four mages all comfortably rode on glowing red discs that floated behind him.

At least they protected him. The swamp really was a dangerous place. He can see why so many adventurers never returned from it even before the giant ants showed up. Zombies, trolls, ants and weirder things. Some kind of wolf that skinned itself and another that flew. Undead he didn't recognize.

Thankfully nothing was immune to fire. Kelleth was really glad for that. He lost track of how many times something surprised him right before bursting into flames and dying. Or dying again.

They had searched for days and hadn't seen another dragon or dragon lizard person. So Jara told him they were going after their second target, the ants. They weren't hard to find. The ants dug pretty large tunnels with really obvious entrances.

He was able to take a backseat once the entered the nest. Jara led the way, lighting the passage by the simple method of setting herself on fire. Yeah. Kelleth decided right then, no matter how pretty she was, he was never going to try to sleep with her. That was terrifying.

The ants died pretty easily, mindlessly charging forward. Without any room to dodge, fire spells were devastating. It wasn't long before they reached the heart of the nest.

Instead of the simple chamber with the ant queen though, they walked into massive cavern. The floor was surprisingly flat other than the large number of pits. Some kind of chamber was below since Kelleth could see ants crawling out of a few carrying chunks of meat.

Jara was acting recklessly, which he couldn't really fault her for. It wasn't like they had run into anything even remotely resembling an ambush or trap. Still, Kelleth couldn't bring himself to relax. The cave just felt wrong to him. It was too big, too level to be natural. And he couldn't see the ants bothering to make it either.

The last of the soldier ants had clustered around the queen, shielding her from view. They didn't any better against fire than the others.

Half way through slaughtering them the queen started keening. It was incredibly loud, the cavern causing it to echo over and over. It was enough to make him wince in pain.

That distraction was the only reason he was looking at the pit. A massive snake made from thousands of bones flooded into the room. It looked like someone had taken a cloud of flying bones and bound them together somehow with iron bands. It was enormous... and heading right towards him.

Kelleth didn't even feel embarrassed as he ran away screaming. He was far too busy panicking. Frantic, he scrambled through the tunnels even as he heard the roar of flames. He felt a flicker of hope befure it died when he heard screaming.

Time to leave. Besides it wasn't like he was needed down there. He was just the guide. If anyone survived he'll just wait at the entrance. Maybe up a tree. Hiding.

He didn't manage to run the entire way. Running and riding use different muscles and he's already been slogging through the mud for hours earlier. Then he heard it. A grating high pitch squeal of bone scraping stone.

It was following him.

Kelleth pushed himself, trying to run further. But he was exhausted. Even fear could only do so much. As the sound grew louder he turned around. The least he could do was face his death like a soldier.

The bone snake lunged at him with open jaws and he noticed down it's throat he could see another, smaller skeletal snake. Odd the things you notice before you die.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I was very satisfied with how well the bone strider had performed. Technically it was an undead creature instead of a construct, but it was definitely inspired by the necrotech constructs from the Exalted game.

The actual basis was a boneyard. A massive skeletal snake creature that ate bones. The bone strider had a number of differences though. The first and most important, it wasn't independent. Sure it acted if no one controlled it, but it was definitely mindless. Only when piloted could it act intelligently.

Frankly the other differences were almost minor in comparison. Sculpting the body to resemble various creatures. For example the ones I placed in Umbarra looked like centipedes. Giving it the ability to slowly burrow and swim. Slightly more armor.

None of it was as amazing as the piloting function, but they added up to a decent increase in power. I squeezed in as many as I could justify. After all if I was going to use an eighth level spell to create them they needed to be worth it.

Perhaps the only important difference was it's spawning ability. Rather than a collection of random skeletons it spawned the most common type of skeleton used in it's creation. There were all sorts of conditions and rules involved, but generally around a score could be summoned. Essentially boiled down too the fact that I needed to create terrifying creatures based off animals if I want them to match.

Considering how I was planning on having them fed, I'll likely get each swamp to breed a population of half-dragon animals in order to create more. Seeing the bone strider vomit a horde of skeletal snakes was impressive enough. Larger, half-dragon versions would be much more effective.

Sure it was going to be a pain to get the xvarts to breed half-dragon rats, but the results would be worth it. Besides, the bone nagas needed some protection. Sure I can generate them quickly due to the simulacrum deepspawn, but it doesn't change how fragile they are.

Not to mention it may even keep Yuan-ti from getting outraged as my use of bone nagas. After all they're one of the few groups that like swamps as much as my kind. Well, besides black dragons, but I've killed both the ones that used to live in the mere.

Although I was sad that the watchghosts never got tested out. It can't be helped since they never reached any of the buildings. I guess the ants were bad enough that the poor guy didn't want to trudge through that much mud. It was almost enough for me to feel sorry for him.

I had quite a bit of fun styling them off what I could remember of the Nightsisters. They can summon a +2 bow, generate endless ammunition and cast Kiss of the Vampire, Melf's Minute Meteors and a new spell based off Flame Arrow that I called Corrosive Quiver. Not only was the damage type change to acid, it has a much shorter range when thrown, but was able to be fired from a bow. Between that and the lack of temporary enchanting options I was also able to drop the saving throw.

The Mere already possesses a number of stone structures, mostly the remains of guard towers and fortresses. I liked and kept the concept, but wanted my own. I had most of the buildings on the swamp torn down with the exception of Iniarv's Tower. I wasn't going to touch that one. I vaguely remember something about an ancient lich living there. Which might be wrong, but no point making an enemy without a reason.

All the structures were replaced by very wide, squat towers only thirty feet high, but a hundred feet wide. The first floor held a garden filled with yellow musk creepers. A steady supply of trolls were fed to them. Since the creepers don't affect insects I place an ant colony within the large basement level.

The third floor held a simulacrum mockery queen. And while the queen was a construct, the drones were very real. Drone guards patrolled the halls and drone villagers inhabited small crowded villages on top of the tower. And small fake garden plots house thornwalkers.

It was the second floor that was important. It was where I placed my undead factory. One of the things I had brainstormed was various types of mindless humanoid monsters. After all this was the Mere of Dead MEN. And then I remembered Dread Warriors.

Only able to be made from fresh bodies of humanoids of at least fourth level fighters, they were just as potentially powerful as watchghosts. It wasn't hard to recreate the spell since I already knew so many specifics, but creating my ideal target took quite a bit of time. Well and resources, but those don't really factor in for me anymore.

I took the human with the highest dexterity score and then started tattooing him. The first two I added were for belt of storm giant's strength followed by gauntlets of ogre power. Combined they boost his strength to an effective 30. Lower than mine or my siblings, but much higher than most races.

I don't stop there. Ring of Protection +5, Bracers of Armor 2, and a constant Haste and Minor Globe of Invulnerability effect meant it took forever to get him ready. He even had a variant of the Shield spell that actually grants a shield bonus of 4. He also could also summon large rocks using an ammunition conjuring spell for his rock throwing ability as well as summon a huge +1 balanced katana that deals 3d8 damage.

The tattoos take long enough that I'm able to power level him all the way up to fifteen. Although it did require me to give up my share of the sword spiders to achieve. Completely worth it though considering just how fast they move and attack. The testing showed just how impressive a high level kensai is. It was beautiful to see.

In many ways he was better than a watchghost. Sure he took an enormous investment, but he was also able to do more than guard. The only downside was the fact that I wouldn't be able to use him in more than one area without making their connections obvious.

Actually I'm going to have to hide any large scale uses of him for quite a while. Szass Tam created dread warriors originally and he had started immediately mass producing them. Combined with the fact that he tried to use undead armies and some kind of life draining / ascension ritual. Yeah, I don't need to give him anymore ideas.

That's actually really irritating. Why couldn't I have realized this earlier? Before I spent months tattooing and power leveling him. Well not really me, since I had minions doing it. Regardless it was extremely annoying.

Screw it. I can still use them. I just need to be careful. Extremely careful. So add in an armor illusion to his bracer tattoo to make him more generic. Include a body destruction curse so no remains are left behind. Anti-divination charms. And since I'm already adding so much more I also include a boost to jumping and minor enchantments for swimming and climbing.

Although seeing the dread warrior in action gives me a better idea for how to handle them. I wasn't going to hide them away and deploy them in small batches. I was going to flaunt them. I was going to create a brand new country.


	13. Newcomers

Chapter 13 Newcomers

The new country will have to wait until later. For now I needed to secure the swamp. Besides, if I was going to use the dread warriors somewhere else I need something else to fill the second floor of the towers.

Fortunately I had plenty of credit with hell and the Baatezu were easily able to create what I wanted. Well easily in that it only took a handful of wish spells. Really glad I've been building up credit with them.

What I had created was a human. At least it resembled one. In reality it was a very undersized and warped half-dragon troll. They had a carapace that looked like armor, in particular a breastplate with large pauldrons and an armored skirt along with a greek style helmet with a crown of small horns. Instead of bracers and greaves they have full gauntlets and armored boots.

It wasn't just armored, it was also armed. Attached to the left arm is a spiked light shield and on the right arm is what looks like a shortsword. In reality it was an incredibly powerful natural weapon. The wedge-like stabbing weapon dealt twice as much damage as a shortsword and had another benefit I remembered from the game. Augmented criticals are one of those passive abilities that zombies do keep and alone were worth the wish I spent on the weapon.

The last thing I had done was to improve it's regeneration. Primarily it's ability to regrow body parts. A touch of bronze dragon blood causes all of it's 'equipment' too look like they were made from bronze. A slightly altered woodling ritual gives them a mossy, discolored look.

All that came at a cost. Thanks to the armor it had terrible senses and even a reduced wisdom and charisma score. It wasn't very bright and violent enough they came across as rabid. The worst cost to it's health. All that reshaping made it more fragile, having only five hit dice and a pitifully low constitution.

They were perfect.

As soon as I got them I chopped them up and started chaining them up in my towers. I then installed a morgh, under the control of the resident bone naga, to convert then into zombies. With the mockery drones instructed to chop up the bodies to create more armor trolls each tower would soon have an army.

Best of all I can have the towers send out random patrols, after all this is the Mere of Dead Men. It should live up to the name. And turning this place into a death trap fits in perfectly with my plans.

I intend to turn the Mere of Dead Men into my trade hub. It was actually ideally situated. It sat between Waterdeep and Neverwinter and was only an orc horde away from Longsaddle. It even had access to the sea.

It wouldn't be easy. An enormous amount of work was going to be needed. So much so that I had a staff with the appropriate spells made just for this project.

I started off with the castle. It was really four gigantic towers designed to protect the crossroads I was building. Each tower was sixty feet across and would eventually rise to over a hundred feet high. I also plan on them joining together fifteen feet above the bridge to form a single castle.

The road was a full thirty feet across and high, well clear of the swamp. There was a reason I made sure most of the creatures I stocked the place lacked ranged attacks. The road had raised sides as well as battlements for pretty much only aesthetics and was supported by a series of large arches.

Two ends of the road would pretty much be a toll road, providing a shortcut along the Trade Way. I had already tested it on a much smaller scale and shifting the official road really does cause the swamp to follow. As soon as I had a large enough population to colonize the Mere I planned to start slowly leaking zombies to distract people from the road being moved.

The other ends would provide new trade routes. One would lead to a harbor that I'll likely build last. The other points east. Sadly the Sword Mountains gets in the way for building a road to Longsaddle. It's far easier to just go through Leilon. At least if an orc horde wasn't in the way.

Looking around though I discover South Krypt, an abandoned dwarven stronghold that was now overrun with bandits. From the looks of things they were fairly new, likely relocating here after I started making the swamp so dangerous. They had built a few crude defenses, but given how many escape tunnels they had it was clear they preferred to run.

I didn't care. I had what I wanted. South Krypt was vast. It was obvious the bandits hadn't done more than clear out a small portion near the surface and then just wall off the rest. It made sense for them, but I disliked leaving myself so vulnerable.

South Krypt was going to become my public face. A false one though. After all the bad publicity lizardfolk have been getting I definitely need a different race. The Order of Aster really has been doing their best to rally everyone against mine. Annoying. And worse safe since the dragon ward over Waterdeep affects me. I guess there are downsides to being a half-dragon.

Once rebuilt, and secretly controlled, it would allow me to start trading. After all I owe Mystra. Besides it's a good opportunity for me as well. Even though they've been completely honest in their dealings I still dislike dealing with devils.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It was thankful that Mechanisburg was still very much in it's beginner stages. Otherwise what I did next would have been much more suspicious. I have Koger move to South Krypt.

In most ways he's perfect. He's already loyal. He makes constructs which can tirelessly fight undead. And he's not a lizardfolk. If fact he had already agreed to overseeing an area for me. A minor thing like location should be fine.

Besides, eventually Koger will gain access to Wave Echo Cave. Even if he has to tunnel through miles of solid stone to get there. I'm fairly certain his construct making will benefit from a first edition level artifact site devoted to improving the crafting process.

It was remarkably easy to find. Just use a Find the Path. I can only assume no one remembered it's actual name or no one powerful enough was interested. Which seems like a horrible waste. And clearing it was just pathetically easy. No doubt Koger could have done so with his constructs, but it took me less than an hour.

I don't really like South Krypt. It's so very distinctly dwarvish in feel. So I rebuild it. Something that takes enormous amounts of earth magic. I model it into an underground city patterned off of one in Mechanus. Their precise lines and organization fit in best with a city named Mechanisburg. I had to make adjustments, but I kept it pretty close.

In order to aid him I gift him with two items. The first is an Anvil of Darkness made from the remains of my first and likely last human shaped golem. Hopefully it'll allow him to improve his automatons. And if not, at least he can make doomguards. Another types of construct can only help his defenses.

The second item is a staff. It's bound to the location and requires quite a few conditions to work, but it's necessary. In particular it holds the spells for creating several types of constructs.

Koger is going to need them to maintain control over a full city. The Stone Beast spell can be used to create Stone Badgers, which can expand the city and serve as troops. The nimblewights will go the opposite route, commanding and leading his other constructs in defense of his city. When he has enough of them he can even use them to run businesses and fill other positions.

Dread Guards were a bit of an odd choice. Both more expensive and less capable than nimblewights. They have one distinct advantage though. Sheer damage output. Dread guards can be created from any suit of armor within a certain size limit. A squat fourteen foot suit of armor is just barely within the scope of the animation ritual. And while it does count as large size, it can easily wield weapons scaled for some of the larger giants.

The other quirk that factors in is that dread guards, like undead skeletons, are automatically proficient with whatever weapon they are equipped with. Which means giving it a lead-cored, huge bastard sword is perfectly reasonable. 4d8 is quite a bit more damage than the other constructs deal.

A nice side benefit is that I'm able to use a suit of mechanis plate for their template. The clockwork style heavy armor is an amazing piece of work and has to be precisely fitted to any bearer. Which thankfully I can just ignore, allowing me to copy them wholesale. Combined with a tower shield and it drops it's THAC0 down to -3.

And it matches the theme of the place perfectly!

The final type of construct was the guardgoyle. Invented by the Zhentarim, they have been careful to keep it only within their organization. However a Limit Wish to create a manual detailing the construction method is well within the spells capabilities. I just wish I could remember more secrets to steal.

I plan on having lamp posts stationed along the roads within the city with a guardgoyle perched on top of each one. A continual flame spell will allow it shed light. A touch of design work and they'd look like just another type of clockwork creature. After all the torchmen was one of my favorite scenes from Girl Genius, despite how short it was. And being underground a source of light was essential.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I was feeling a bit impatient with my skull harvesting project so I decided to change my approach. Each of the four towers in the Mere was set solidly into the bedrock. I quickly carved out large breeding chambers under each one for different types of creatures.

To make it easier I kept them all native to swamps. I had already switched the animals being bred by the bone nagas for dire toads. Not only do they breed faster, but they don't have any valuable parts, like skin. The four new species on the other hand were intended to be fully harvested. One was for snakes since they were useful.

The second was turtles. Despite my use of turtles before, I set up Dromund Kaas to breed monitor lizards, after all it was called the Lizard Marsh. Besides, the turtles had been growing scarce recently, unable to survive against the improved shocker lizards and behirs.

The other two were crocodiles and dire squirrels. Leather and fur were both valuable. And while squirrels weren't very powerful, they could climb. Even better, unlike snakes, they can do so with a rider.

I also did something similar to Mechanisburg. After all, if it was going to grow into a full city, it was going to need a source of food. And while I had let myconids set up shop in the lowest levels, the rest were converted into farms. It was simple to set up a dozen contained farms for a few farm animals.

A little research had let me repeat the trick from the Rod of Wonder to grow grass and now I could provide an endless amount of fodder. Just in case I bound the item to Mechanisburg. No sense taking a chance of the basis for the food supply being stolen. Pens for sheep, boar and rothe were easily set up. And the abundant meat meant he could support a small population of leopards.

Still, that left me dozens of animals and I was impatient. So I arranged to set up another base. I used the site north of Yartar between the two rivers. It was good spot, but after several years it was obvious would never turn into a swamp. This way it wouldn't go to waste.

And I do consider it currently going to waste. Large, mostly empty stretches of scrub grass and tundra. Sparse wildlife with orcs and barbarians occasionally wandering through.

So I moved the hobgoblins there. Under Thriz's guidance they had organized themselves into a very effective force. My own influence was obvious since they enslaved any female hobgoblins they came across in order to increase their breeding pool. They had even captured an ogre so they could create their own hybrids.

Since they loved fire so much, worshiping Mephistopheles, I named them the Skullfire Legion. I'm sure they'll do the name proud and it wasn't like it was being used anymore. Besides, this also fit in with my intentions of using large number of flameskulls as guards for their base.

This time instead of a series of towers I build a single large keep. I had a lot of practice in the Mere of Dead Men, so a single hundred foot wide tower was simple. Even if I did extend it an extra seven stories. Of course the last time the hobgoblins were overrun by a small, powerful force so I decided to go with defense in depth.

In deference to their patron, I used the number eight several times. The keep had eight hundred feet of clearance before the first wall was reached. Which was eighty feet high and possessed eight large guard towers. A massive structure by itself, it was also eighty feet wide.

The inner wall had a second wall wrapped around it. A purely defensive structure forty feet out that was fifteen feet shorter. For stability the bottom half of the wall was solid stone and only the top half had internal archer cubbies.

There were no ladders either. Instead you had to take one of the narrow walkways that extended from a tower on the inner wall over to the top of the second wall. A third and fourth wall followed the same pattern. Although the fourth wall, being only thirty-five feet, only had a single layer of archer cubbies.

While only the corner towers had the catwalks that let you move directly between walls, the number of towers doubled each for each wall. The fourth wall was a bit crowded with sixty four-towers spaced out only a hundred or so feet apart. The corner towers were also sturdier, with large buttresses supporting them to support the catapults on top. The other towers only had light ballistas.

To make things worse each wall was protected by a large gatehouse containing two portculli, arrow slits, and murder holes. They weren't aligned either. After passing one, you had to traverse past two corner towers to reach the next one. Since you couldn't see the next gatehouse directly, the Guards and Wards spell meant attackers could get confused and take the long way.

The hobgoblins, even before their losses, would never have been able to man the place. Which was fine. After all, past the outer wall, attackers were going to be obvious. Which meant I was free to bind hundreds of flameskulls to each wall. Add in the handful of hobgoblin watchghosts I placed in each gatehouse and the castle defended itself.

I also shapeshift into a hobgoblin and open negotiations with Yartar to the South and Longsaddle to the north. After all the best defense is one that is never needed. It will be much harder for the Order of Aster to attack if the Skullfire Legion has allies they don't want to offend.

Sadly Yartar outright refused. I can't completely blame them. The ruler, titled Waterbaron, was a woman named Belleethe Kheldorna. She was also a paladin. As such she has vows against cooperating with anyone who isn't good aligned. And I definitely didn't quality. Not that an actual hobgoblin would have been any better.

Despite the refusal I wasn't worried about Yartar. As a paladin, Belleethe was also not able to use underhanded tactics. Not only was there a river to provide a natural barrier, but without a need to cross the river I could just fill my shore with spikes to prevent crossings.

Longsaddle was much more welcoming to their new neighbors. Not only did they not care about race, they were supremely confident in their ability to defend themselves. They were more than happy with the idea of a permanent trade route extending to them.

You have to love the Harpells. They're like magical kender. Curious, fearless and with a complete disregard for convention. Sure they're a bit overly trusting at times. But at least this time it's going to make them incredibly rich.

Skullfire Keep was set up to mass produce three types of skulls for me. Wolverines, dire foxes and dire weasels. All three were also highly valued for their fur. Which means the hobgoblins will have something to trade. And while were wasn't a market for the meat, at least it'll keep the hobgoblins well fed.

Not to mention the half-red dragon pyrohydra I had chained up so they could harvest it for dragoncraft items. Things like fireproof scales, leather and dragonfang weapons would fit in perfectly with the fire loving hobgoblins.

All of which is going to be heading to Longsaddle. Yartar really is missing out. It wouldn't surprise me in a year or so to hear that they have a new Waterbaron.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It seems I finished my work in Mechanisburg just in time. Less than a week later my cantrip exploded violently on me. I had a few others test it and every time the results ran wild. It seems the Time of Troubles has begun.

For most of the world the Godswar was a dramatic and traumatic experience. Several deities perished, the land was changed in many places and the Weave itself was damaged. Even the nature of godhood was changed at the end of it.

For me and mine the Godswar was a massive opportunity. I'm not sure what Essyllis had done in the original Godswar, but he took one of my brothers as an avatar this time. With a god nearby, we could continue using magic and I pushed all the projects forward recklessly to take advantage of the fact that so few others had any magic of their own right now.

Mechanisburg grew incredibly fast with the aid of bone nagas to continuously recharge Koger's staff. And while it was still largely empty of living beings, I'm sure it'll fill up quickly. There are already a number of magic item shops along with a few others for materials although none will open until the city is further along.

Additionally many smaller projects were started now that I can do so without anyone being able to notice. The Trade Way was pushed miles eastward. Orlumbor had some major excavation done in order to create a new base. Miles of tunnels, dozens of rooms and multiple levels. And finally, I set up a fake spelljamming invasion.

Well, maybe not so much invasion as crash landing and colonization. I created several more oil filled crystal lances and dropped them in several additional places. Most of them were in out of the way places like the Evermoors and in the mountains, but I did drop one on the Whalebones and where I was originally planning to place Mechanisburg.

I had two reasons for doing so. The first was obviously to fake up a fleet breaking up and crash landing. Which would be enough to explain why a new group was suddenly colonizing several different sections of the world.

I was planning two colonies. The first was a site I had previously picked out. An eldar fortress would be perfect for controlling a new toll bridge and road. Even better they could then expand south since the area was largely empty. Trolls from the Trollbark forest and mountains will hardly pose a threat to me.

The other colony is the Whalebones. I'm glad I had so much practice with Orlumbor. Setting up reefs and extending the edges of a dozen tiny islands is anything but quick and easy. At least the water is fairly shallow so I don't have to extend enormous pillars of stone to support the expanded territory.

Since I haven't seen found evidence of anyone else using it I decide the Eldar are going to use roman style architecture with a greater emphasis on columns. That will give me to excuse to fill their colonies with Caryatid Columns. Essylliss's presence means it's actually possible to gain and reliably cast cleric spells as well.

Thankfully my experience with staff making lets me create one for their construction quickly. Halruuan Marble, a modified Wall of Stone that creates a strong plaster wall, Clearstone, Glassteel and Stone Shape were also included. Everything needed to quickly create a full settlement.

I also drop a few handful of dread warriors in a few other places with orders to just kill everything. Sure they're powerful, but endless hordes of trolls or orcs will eventually put them down. Of course I plan on eventually having them officially take over the Mere of Dead Men. But people will hopefully just think it took longer to secure themselves.

I don't remember too much about the Eldar visually. Just jetbikes, feathered wings and fire prism tanks. The first two I combined with my next creation. I build an effigy of a terror bird. Normally an effigy is a decent clockwork construct that's way too overpriced for me. Then I realized it can create a custom creature for it to copy.

So I took a terror bird and enhanced it with the normal fang-dragon blood, dungeon bred ritual and enlarging ritual. I then had it's scales sculpted into armored feathers since it looked just a dinosaur at that point and I wanted a bird.

The last thing I did was use a wish on it's muscles. I remember power and endurance seem to be trade offs in muscle types and I wanted something incredibly fast. I didn't care if it tires quickly. After all I was going to turn it into an undead.

It worked out wonderfully. I had done the math and 10 feet per round was about 1 mph. Terror birds were already one of the fastest creatures with a movement speed of 7 mph. The wish gave it an incredible boost, almost tripling it's speed to 20 mph. Less than half of what a cheetah can move, but a base stat instead of an ability. Cheetah skeletons, sadly, are slower than horses.

The birds were perfect. When flying they had large wings made up a cross between feathers and cartilige fins. They were fast, strong and agile. They can even deal a decent amount of damage, with their beak doing 3d6, their claws 1d8 and their wings 1d6 damage.

The effigy versions, named Eldar Warbirds, maintained all of the base creatures advantages and make it much more survivable. More hit points, a small armor boost and even some damage reduction. Since fine details can be altered I had the effigies made to look like they were made from porcelain.

I only kept a few of the originals around just in case I needed to teach a new crafter, which will inevitably happen. Mostly though I focused on incorporating as many of the alterations as possible while still keeping them a viable target for the Stone Beast spell.

Packs of five foot marble terror birds seem like perfect hunting dogs for my Eldar.

That isn't the only bird I modify for the Eldar. I also use a heron. Normally a small bird that spears even smaller fish and other animals I change it extensively. Besides the standard rituals I also cause it to grow until it reaches seven feet in height. Another wish and it's long neck, coupled with it's legs, allow it to strike up to ten feet away.

I'm burning my credit incredibly quickly, but it was worth it to take advantage of the current blindspot in everyone's divination. Alterations to the beak improve it's ability to punch holes in it's targets, being essentially a copy of the bone sword the armored trolls used.

While the resulting stone beasts are slow, they make decent guards. I have them made from black marble and simply name them Black Herons. A nice counterpart to the White Moa I fashion from the terror birds.

The drawbacks of the Godswar were the lost opportunities. Once it was over and the edition rules changed so do the nature of souls. I don't know the details, but I do know manipulating them becomes much harder. And of course you can no longer drain lesser beings for power.

Which is why as soon as the Godswar had started I slaughtered every spider we had, including the ones only partially matured. It'll be a year or more to recover, but I really needed as much as possible. As it was it still wasn't enough. One of the reasons I had bombed so many places. Orcs don't give much experience, but an entire horde gives quite a bit.

It's nice having my sorcerer abilities back.


	14. Brand New World

Chapter 14 Brand New World

Essylliss was remarkably passive the entire Godswar. He willingly followed me and stayed around as I worked on my projects. I knew I was officially his champion, but I hadn't expected this level of support.

Then I realized he was already working on his own project. It just didn't take too much time. Sure he had avoided looking too closely at my memories, but we had talked quite a bit when making our bargain. He had been interested in avatars and the bhaalspawn in particular.

Combining that knowledge Essylliss was creating his own future champions. Essylliss was fathering an entire generation of the new lizardfolk. He wasn't as powerful as Mystra or Bhaal so he was going for quantity. I hadn't even noticed Yesk and the other clerics arranging it ahead of time.

At least he wasn't making actual bhaalspawn. Even if his creation methods are similar, Mystra used a similar technique and she got the seven sisters out of it. Although ironically now is when Essylliss chooses to reveal to me that I'm a bhaalspawn. Or at least was. He had used that divine spark inside me to fuel my powers.

By Ao I was glad to have escaped that fate. If I had to be connected to a diety, Essylliss was definitely one of the better ones. He was pretty laid back, just gave me a goal and let me loose. Being a bhaalspawn with their need to kill people regularly would have been nightmarish.

Sure I could have set up a base, but getting to that point would have sucked. And being hunted by other bhaalspawn. And wizards who want to experiment on me. And crazy cultists. Damn. Bhaalspawn had a really rough life. I really do owe Essylliss.

Sadly, while I'm not a cursed bastard of a god who radiates pure evil, I am a giant terrifying lizard dragon person. Which means adventurers look at me and think something along the lines of slay the monster. It seems there's always a drawback.

The drawback of Essylliss's goal was the cost to his host. Even with our improvements, mortals were not meant to burn that bright. Essylliss was killing my brother just by being inside him. Two months. That's how long he lasted before crumbling into ash. And then Essylliss jumped into the next one.

If the Godswar takes too long I may lose my entire family. I wonder if something is wrong with me that all I fell is irritation at their potential loss. Shouldn't I be sad?

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Five months. That's how long the Godswar lasted and how long it took for the world to change. All of reality heard Ao's proclamation. Gods are now dependent on their worshipers for power. Which means if they're forgotten, they die.

Churches are recruiting like never before. Promising all kinds of things in return for joining. After the chaos of the Time of Troubles though no one seems willing to launch any crusades. It makes sense. After all any fighting endangers your own worshipers.

In in those five months I lost three brothers. The price might be worth it though. I lost three siblings, but Essyllis fertilized over three thousand eggs. One hell of a population jump from the fifteen hundred we currently had. And most of those were still children.

They weren't bhaalspawn. Essylliss made sure to point out that none of the eggs possessed any trace of a divine spark. Instead, like he did with me, he used it as fuel to improve them further. Not quite as powerful as me, but better than normal.

My best guess would be equivalent to an Advanced Template. Powerful, but nowhere near as game changing as my Paragon template. And if the seven sisters are any indication, they will be a bit more attuned to their parent deity.

The rest of the world is also only now reacting to my moves. It seems quite a bit of traffic had slowed, if not halted, during the Godswar. Waterdeep had also come under attack and bunkered down. Between the two merchants were only now discovering the expansion of the Mere of Dead Men.

Mechanisburg was quickly discovered. Not that it could hide. I hadn't been able to resist and had added three industrial chimneys to the city. Not that they were belching out real smoke. I wasn't burning any coal or oil. Instead I had a modified eversmoking bottle spewing out vast quantities of hot smoke. Since it was magical, it harmlessly dissipated within a minute.

Since I disliked wasting opportunities, the smoke poured through a massive smokehouse. The dry heat wasn't the only change I made to the bottle. Very subtle flavorings could be added to the smoke by adding different tree saps to the stove size bottle.

Koger was already hard at work expanding Mechanisburg. He had asked me for a few dozen skilled workers and I had Herask just buy him a load of slaves. Since the first floor was pretty much a merchant's district and the bottom floors were being used he went up.

The first floor was only thirty feet high. Twin spiral staircases were set periodically throughout the place to the next floor up. Mild pain wards steered traffic to only use one side for going up or down. The upper floor was a residential area. It was build apartment style and was currently pretty small.

Since I was not about to bother with fuel concerns I have communal kitchens. Anyone can use a booth and cook what they want. A large slab of iron had a permanent harden and heat metal on it, serving as the stove. It also lies on the water pipe that runs to the baths. It's amazing how easy plumbing and sewage is to manage with just a single Decanter of Endless Water.

Well that and the myconid colony on the bottom floor. Can't emphasize their usefulness enough. So useful and so easy to recruit. Hell, they consider leading a horrible job. Perfect minions.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Mechanisburg isn't the only thing that's discovered. The Eldar are quickly found as well. Particularly the toll bridge and road in Stalingrad. Given how massive it way, I was actually surprised no one had run into it earlier.

I named the fortress Stalingrad because I decided my Eldar were going to speak russian. Tolkien elvish would probably have fit better, but unfortunately I didn't know elvish. I did know russian. I liked the soft rolling sounds and as far as I could tell, no one else spoke russian on Abeir-Toril.

I was glad I had pushed to complete so much of the Stalingrad. While the Umbarran swamp hadn't overtaken the road yet, people were still seemed to prefer the safety of my toll road. And of course I did have the only bridge within fifty miles across the Delimbiyr river. I had even considered dredging it to it couldn't be forded, but it wasn't worth it since I wasn't about to let ships pass through the Lizard Marsh.

While I was definitely using dread warriors for my soldiers, they also do not interact well socially. So I needed something more intelligent for that role. Or at least more socially adept. Which is harder than it should be. Since I'm avoiding any links to any of my other projects I can't use lizardfolk, nimblewights or slaves. Which doesn't really leave me with many options.

I feel a little bad when I raid the Amnish circus. Not for the people running it of course. Despite my own actions, I still dislike slavers. Especially ones who abuse their slaves pointlessly.

No, I feel bad that Gorion's ward will never have the chance to meet Aerie. Well, unless he travels a lot further north than any of the games let him. Besides, it won't really be Aerie anymore either.

For one thing, she still has her wings. I had rescued her well before they started to rot. Although they were a bit atrophied. For another, she was dead. If he did go north he'd only meet a spawn of her. And even then she wouldn't be recognizable when compared to the game character.

One of the first things I had done after the Godswar was over was to kill something. I crushed a turtle, closed my eyes and concentrated.

Nothing.

No surge of power. No sense of getting stronger. I might as well have crushed an acorn.

I guess Ao really did change things. Which I had expected. I had felt the change sweeping across reality and within me upon his proclamation. And long familiarity let me gain an impression of just how Ao has changed the nature of my soul.

Experience is no longer vampiric. Rather than from a surge of energy it's now like a muscle. Except stress, determination and triumph substitute for exercise, food and rest. All things that enrich the soul. It kind of makes me want to hunt down an illithid to study what kinds of experiences work best.

Except I guess already know. Challenges. Combat and danger are just some of the easiest ways of getting meaningful ones. Personal drive and focus means more than anything else though.

Hell one of the Magisters becomes an archmage without every fighting anyone. Just lots of studying. And not centuries either. A decade or two of concentration and ninth level spells. For her it was the wonder of creating new spells and the challenges of figuring out arcane secrets. Experience now really does mean just that.

Still, Aerie is still low enough level that even weaker creatures can pose a threat to her. Since fear doesn't create the personal drive needed I use magic. Charms and suggestions motivate her to push her training forward rapidly.

Without divine restrictions and an unfettered soul, Aerie quickly levels into a mixture of wizard, rogue and bard. She wasn't being trained for combat, but for a social role. Not that she would be helpless. Pitting her nearly fatal tests multiple times ensures that much.

Still, she's only fifth level when I feed her to the deepspawn. I regret it, since spawn can't level up, but I just couldn't afford to wait any longer. I had been using a nimblewight so far, but it was only a matter of time before someone realizes what it is.

Aerie's spawn is a perfect success. Spawn have much more muted emotions compared to the original. Or rather I should say, they pale in comparison to the loyalty they feel. And since the deepspawn had been mentally broken, the spawn were just as loyal to me.

Still, I was surprised by just how well it worked out. Aerie's clingy personality with it's slight air of desperation was now replaced with a calm serenity. You could almost feel her inner peace. At least until you got to know her and realized it was apathy.

Of course I wouldn't make such an investment for only a single representative. So to differentiate them I had them apply small, random dye markings to their wings. Still, that's still limited when their wings are identical.

So I have them tattooed. And not the normal boosts to combat stats. Shimmering prismatic glamours over their eyes, hair and wings will help disguise them. As does their armored robes and face mask.

Even that much proved to be a challenge. Midnight it seems has begun the process of standardizing the rules for magic item creation. And while they will prove very useful later on, right now they make it hard for established crafters to make anything. She has also started screwing with the Weave, making it harder to use Evocation and Necromancy.

She may call herself Mystra, but she's not following through. The whole point of keeping the name was to reassure everyone that she won't change anything. Which is being revealed right now as one massive lie. Hopefully the whole Cyric trial happens soon and I can work on my heralds.

My Heralds, as I've named the Aerie spawn, were not actually put in charge. After all Aerie didn't have a tactical mindset. No that was left to the watchghosts. After all, dread warriors aren't the only thing I can make from their bodies. And a watchghost isn't mentally crippled the way the dread warriors are.

While the base in the Mere of Dead Men won't go public for awhile, the Whalebones can't be hidden. I've already named it Moscow and have plans for it. Much like Evermeet, it's going to be incredibly restrictive.

It's also going to be the source of quite a bit of wealth. Isiros had been more than willing to help me with my latest project. Jursa had even joined her once I explained how this could potentially affect hunting

What they helped me create was a fang golem. But not a normal fang golem. It cost a staggering amount, almost a full hundred thousand gold pieces, but it was worth it. Crafted from fang dragon infused animal parts. Specifically teeth, tusks and narwhal horns. All of which are ivory.

The true benefit of the twenty foot golem was it's ability to generate and launch spikes. Spikes made from itself. Thick spears of solid ivory. Thirty of them every day.

It was placed in the heart of Moscow, surrounded by a dozen watchghosts. Further to disguise the true source of ivory I captured and altered a number of walruses. And not just altered, I crossed them with seals. After all it would be wasteful to not use their hide. And seal fur is much more useful than the thick skin of a walrus.

I named them tusked seals. And with a bit of sympathy magic made the Whalebone Islands their preferred living area. With the reefs and walls of stone to shelter them, Moscow provided plenty of space for them. And while they wouldn't eat it, troll meat served as an excellent means of attracting and sustaining large numbers of fish.

The buildings on the small islands don't take up much of the beaches, so the walruses have plenty of space. A few area sensory wards and they won't really bother anyone who isn't sharing the beach with them. And I have a renewable source for fur, meat and ivory.

I can even use their skulls for stone beasts. Which is more useful than I anticipated once I remembered pumice floats. While it does make them more fragile, using pumice means they can retain their swimming ability. Even better it can also improve all the reptilian stone beasts I'm already creating. Not to mention making breeding sharks worthwhile. And not only for their teeth and skin.

Given a few years and between tusked seals and sharks I may not even need the fang golem anymore. Not that I intend to stop using it. But redundancy is better.

I use more watchghosts to protect the area. After all the tusked seals are a valuable resource. Given the reefs though natural predators weren't the issue. What I was worried about was more intelligent enemies.

My excuse for the watchghosts was that they were bound to the remains of the ship. Which also meant I needed to quickly and sneakily bind a few to the remains of my bombing sites. Well, maybe not all of them. It'd be suspicious if Luskan started sprouting ghosts.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Despite her aid, Jursa was not happy with me. The way I was warping entire ecosystems really bothered as a druid. The fact that the changes were contained and self-sustaining didn't matter. And she really didn't like my use of constructs and undead.

I can kind of see what her point. She is a druid and all about the balance of nature. I'm not about to stop though. This world is harsh and I need every advantage I can get. Besides, most of the environment has been unnaturally reworked at one point or another. I'm just the latest. And at least I have an ecosystem. Even if it is ridiculously artificially inflated.

Still she had quite a few supporters. After all she was one of my siblings and as such had taught many in the second and third generation. I don't feel like dealing with her though. So I exile her.

Well I say exile, but it's move of a colonization. The swamp on the Winding River has taken hold nicely and aside from trolls didn't possess any sentient life yet. Even better the mountains sheltered it from the north winds, meaning it stayed relatively warm even in the winter.

One of the major benefits of my move into the Mere of Dead Men was how much I worked with black dragon essence. And while normally dragoncraft items required body parts from a true dragon, I had found a work around.

It wasn't as comprehensive, but a creature already attuned to the element and enhanced into a half-dragon of the appropriate type, could sometimes be used. For example a behir combined with blue dragon blood, could be used to craft dragoncraft armor and weapons, while a shocker lizard could create a hide mantle.

Giant ants, despite using acid, weren't quite attuned enough to do the same with black dragon blood. At least without a little help. One of the types of grafts was to implant the organ that grants a breath weapon. It also has a side effect of affecting the host's teeth. Ant's use their stingers for their acid and so it was the stinger that became the focus for the energy.

Add a ring of regeneration, and a few curses because I was merciful, and I could endlessly harvest the stinger to create daggers, darts, javelins and spears. All of which deal acid damage. And while as a druid Jursa wasn't comfortable with my methods, she did accept the massive armory of acidic weapons to help her conquer the swamp.

I don't let them take any of the new eggs though. I end up executing one of the mothers who wouldn't listen. Essylliss had fathered them personally. If Silvanus wanted souped up lizardfolk he can create his own. Several of her followers change their mind at that point. Not enough to stop her though.

I check the ones who change their mind carefully. I'm not chancing any of them trying to sneak away later. And while none of them seem treacherous, I still post guards over the eggs.

I was a bit sad to see her go. After all she had helped me create that giant fang golem only a few weeks ago. It was a shame, but at least it didn't turn into a civil war. Hopefully they're happy down there.


	15. interlude: Hamelin

Chapter 15 Interlude: Hamelin

Hamelin had been a merchant for years. He was independent too, avoiding entanglement with Guilds, cities or anything that smacked of authority. He considered himself a free spirit. An adventurer, not of treasure, but markets.

He wasn't too proud to admit that he had been very lucky in his life. He had successfully avoided bandits, monsters and politics. It was one of the reasons he followed Tymora.

The Godswar had been a terrible time for business. With magic unreliable he was too vulnerable to travel the roads. He also lacked the savings to just bide his time in any of the cities. So Hamelin had been forced to camp out in the woods for months.

Like everyone, he had heard Ao's announcement. The thing about gods he just ignored. That stuff was for nobles and high priests. It was never going to matter to him. It was the news that the Godswar was over that he celebrated. He cracked open a small cask of mead he had been saving and got drunk.

Hamelin patiently waited a few extra days. He had no desire to get caught up in the rush of fools who wanted to move out immediately. Each night he left the camp and looked over the road. There was plenty of wreckage. Mostly broken, abandoned wagons from impatient merchants.

The guards stayed inside the walls and he was able to salvage quite a few useful items. Waterdeep did send out patrols, but they were large military units. They never noticed him. Likely wouldn't have cared even if they did.

When Hamelin did set out, he was carrying plenty of spare parts. Wheels, planks, even axles. Enough to build another wagon or two if need be. He was also heading north, unlike most of the others.

With Luskan destroyed Neverwinter was the only major city left north of Waterdeep along the Trade Way. However, Neverwinter also has a large harbor and it was easier and cheaper to ship things to them. Hamelin wasn't going to Neverwinter though. Leilon was plenty large for a small trader like him.

Besides, there had been all those fascinating rumors coming from Leilon before the Godswar started. In fact he had intended to head there, but had been caught while resupplying. He was excited to once again be exploring. To see just what had been changed. After all gods had been running around fighting each other. Surely there would be a multitude of new things to see.

Hamelin traveled three days before he saw the first major change. He had made his way to Leilon once before and he definitely didn't remember the road being so close to the mountains. In fact it looked like it had been cut into them, which would take a lot of magic or labor. Not something Leilon could afford.

He also couldn't help but notice that the swamp seems to have spread. It looked much larger than before, far enough he couldn't see the sea anymore. Maybe that was why the road had been shifted? After all the swamp could hardly move uphill.

There used to be a few towers in the swamp. Rising up like crooked needles in the distance. However that was not what Hamelin was seeing now. The buildings were still deep in the swamp, but were large squat structures that look like small castles.

Curious, Hamelin pulled out on of his most prized possessions. The large spyglass had been expensive, but he considered it priceless. It had let him see so much more of the world. Just as it did now. When he used it on the buildings he could tell they were recent. Lacking the discoloration of long term weathering despite having a thick covering of large vines.

In fact it looked kind of like a tower. If you stretched out sideways. And took away all the windows. It had battlements though. Although no soldiers. Instead it had what looked like a tiny villages on top.

Were people living inside the swamp? Why?

There was plenty of land available. They could live just about anywhere. Maybe they don't like bandits? Surely monsters are a worse danger. And how did they build those weird castles?

It really was too bad he couldn't see any roads leading to them. His wagon can't travel through a swamp. Looks like something to ask about later.

Shaking his head, Hamelin starts his wagon again. He really likes this new road. He was leaning towards magic now. It was too smooth and even to be normal stone cutting. And master stonecutters would have cost a fortune. And would likely still be working. After all, he'd been traveling for hours now and as far as he can see the road continues along the edge of the mountain.

Seeing a pair of wagons in the distance he picked up his pace. Maybe he can get some answers now. From the bright glow, they've made a pretty large campfire.

It wasn't until he was much closer that he realized the wagons were burning. It wasn't a camp, it was the remains of one. From the wreckage three people start walking towards him.

Hamelin halts and looks carefully around. The road is wide, but not that wide. There is plenty of cover both from the marsh grasses and from the rocky terrain on the other side. He doesn't see any ambushes though. Maybe they were it?

Hamelin eyes the three people staggering towards him. No doubt drunk from alcohol they looted. Bastards.

Odd equipment though. None of them were carrying bows or even javelins. Just short swords and small round shields. And the armor all matches, even if it isn't well maintained. Was this bigger than just bandits?

He decided it doesn't really matter. He has no intention of getting killed here. A hand flicks up and the ring there glows brightly. The Ring of Shooting Stars is his most prized possession and the reason he's been able to travel safely. He triggers Ball Lightning and watches as a small globe of lightning slams into each of the three soldiers.

They barely flinch.

Hamelin frowns. There was no way they can just ignore lightning. And as drunk as they are, at least one of them should have yelled in pain. Something was wrong. And they were still coming.

He doesn't like using his trump card, but he was worried. "Shooting Star!"

A much smaller bead of lighting lashes out. When it hits the first soldier it explodes violently, throwing crackling bolts of energy into the other two.

They still don't flinch. No screams either. They definitely aren't humans. Undead most likely. He'd think zombies, but shooting star would have killed normal zombies. Hamelin flicks his hand again and sends a second bead into them.

They collapse and he breathes a sigh of relief. The Ring only had one more before needing to rechange. Whatever they are, they're a lot tougher than normal zombies.

Still keeping an eye out he inspects them. Seeing the withered and hardened flesh he sighs. Undead. Of all the changes Ao had made, he dislikes the change to his vision the most. He still doesn't know why he lost his infravision and gained the ability to see in total darkness.

It didn't even make sense! Half-orcs aren't magical. So infravision should be either. He hadn't minded it at the time, but he was regretting it right now. Infravision would have revealed them to be undead.

It can't be helped. At least his ring still worked. He had been a bit worried actually. It was the first time he had used it since the Godswar started. Well, the first time since he tried and blew up an entire meadow accidentally.

He grabs one of the bodies and chains it up. If Leilon hasn't run into them yet, they'll want to know about it. And he needs real light to inspect them properly.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Hamelin didn't make it to Leilon. Despite being tired he had pushed on. After all he didn't feel safe on the road. Those undead had come from the swamp. It was pretty obvious by the muddy, moss covered armor. The fact that it was all made from bronze just showing how old the stuff was.

He supposes they had been stirred up the be whole Godswar. After all it was called the Mere of Dead Men. It seems all the talk about it being an ancient kindgom were actually true.

Despite moving slowly, they weren't zombies though. Zombies didn't have flesh as tough as oak. Or bronze armor and weapons grafted to them.

Or maybe they do. They didn't before, but who knows if that's still true? Ao changed Gods and even smaller things like the way he sees. This could just be more of the same. Hamelin pats his ring to comfort himself. At least that hasn't changed.

It seems the world was been changed even more thoroughly than he imagined. Suddenly he bursts into laughter. It was like starting over. A whole new world to explore and now he can be one of the first. And it looks like his first opportunity has just shown up.

There before him, carved deep into the side of the mountain is a gatehouse. Made of large stone blocks it protected a massive tunnel that led deep into the mountain. The tunnel was easily twenty feet wide and the same tall. Not a crudely carved out either. Paved floor and worked stone walls and supporting arches on the ceiling.

Whoever designed the place was paranoid. While torched lined the walls, there were also numerous arrow slits running down each side with iron shutters. Mortar holes dotted the ceiling and there was a portcullis every fifteen feet.

Seeing how regularly everything was placed it was each to keep track of distance. The tunnel was a full three hundred feet long. Since he hasn't seen a single door it meant there were likely a lot more passageways further in. This place was designed to hold off an army. Which is why Hamelin was so shocked by the sudden greeting.

"Greetings traveler! I am Aramis. Welcome to Mechanisburg."

He was an odd fellow, tall and lean. Dressed in the frilly silk clothes and wide brimmed hat that dandies and bravos in Waterdeep seemed to favor. Hamelin would have thought he was just another fop if it wasn't for the predatory grace with which he moved. That and his weapons.

Most fencing rapiers he had seen were gaudy. As much decoration as weapon for the nobles who bore them. The mans was a solid piece of metal. No jewels, no gilding or ornaments. Purely functional. He also seemed to be carrying at least a score of throwing knives.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It didn't take long for Hamelin to decide he loved Mechanisburg. It was an amazing place. It was hard to believe it was the work of only one man.

After a week and one meeting with Koger, the 'mayor' of Mechanisburg, at least Aramis's greeting made sense. He must have been bored to death here. Even with his two brothers setting up businesses as well, the place was way too quiet. Sure there were the slaves, but they all kept to themselves and seemed terrified of just about everything.

Poor things. At least Koger didn't seem like the cruel type. He was too obsessed with his machines to care about people.

As much as he would like to free them, Hamelin was realistic. Wherever Koger had come from, he had prepared well. Mechanisburg had an army able to defend it. And living up to it's name, they all seem to be enchanted machines. Giant moving suits of armor, mechanical cats the size of ponies and more.

By far the most common though are oddly shaped beings wielding large hammers. There are literally hundreds of them. They aren't very reliable though, occasionally freezing in place for a few seconds. It seems they were Koger's latest project and he was obsessed with improving them.

The architecture is odd too. Something Aramis called gothic. Hamelin was careful to memorize the term. It might be a clue from where they came from. After all, it was likely Koger had fled from there. There wasn't any other reason to surround himself with such elaborate defenses.

He didn't mind the style. In fact it reminded him of some of the richer parts of Waterdeep. But he could do without the gargoyles. He knows some places like to use them as decorations, but Koger seemed to love them. They were everywhere! Lamp posts provided light throughout the underground city and every single one had one perched on top.

At least the lights inside the buildings were normal. Still magical, but normal magic and not angry glaring figures. Still they weren't enough to keep him away. He was definitely going to be dropping by periodically.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Aramis was very friendly, willing to guide him all around the empty city. Regardless of his circumstances, Koger sure thought big. The city was giant. Over a hundred buildings even though less than a dozen were in use.

The city was obviously new. And sadly they didn't know anything more about the unusual undead than he did. Aramis did confirm they came from the swamp though, having run into a few before. So the things weren't alone and needed to be reported.

Aramis had even introduced him to his brothers. Porthos ran a smokehouse, butcher shop and tavern. Or at least he was loosely in charge of them. He was a bit loud, very every bit as friendly as Aramis.

On the other hand Athos was much more reserved. He seemed to be a mage. At least if the magic item shop he ran was any indication. And as befitting a place that stocked potions, scrolls, wands and other valuables security was impressive. Glowing runes, plenty of guards and Hamelin was sure there were other hidden defenses.

Any doubts Hamelin had over his guide's competence were dispelled the second day. Aramis had some kind of device that alerted him to visitors and he had tagged along. He was alarmed to note that the visitors were all armed. Bandits.

Hamelin sprinted forward, pulling off his glove to expose his ring, when suddenly Aramis moved. Both his arms twisted and long metal blades sprouted from his wrists, punching through the men holding his arms. A twirl and the blades pulled free only to impale another bandit.

Shocked, Hamelin didn't even realize he had stopped moving until a pack of metal cats ran past him. They reached the last few bandits well before they left the tunnel. And despite moving in packs, they really were cats, playing with the bandits. Did Koger really have to make them so realistic?

There was a click and the blades were just suddenly gone. Aramis flicked his hand and all the blood was suddenly gone.

He didn't say anything, but Hamelin knew what he had seen. Incredibly graceful bladework. Effortless spell casting. Only one group he knows of has both those abilities.

Bladesingers.

Except Bladesingers are an elite order. Trained for years by Evermeet as their field agents. People said they danced with their blades. Which fit what he saw. The problem was he'd never heard of a rogue bladesinger. Or rather, given both his brothers moved with that same incredible grace, three rogue bladesingers.

It made sense why they'd be willing to work for a paranoid bastard like Koger though. Elves tended to avoid going underground. This place is unlikely to see many of them visit. And even if discovered a set up like this would likely be too considered too much effort to bother with.

Conclusion reached, Hamelin decided not to say anything. Even after a day he considered Aramis a friend. No point borrowing trouble.

As they walked back to get a drink he glanced back. Seeing large metal bugs melting the bodies down, Hamelin felt even better about his decision. Definitely no need to borrow trouble.

Laila had always considered herself a patriot. Well, as close to one as possible in a city like Luskan. Still she loved her city for the way it ignored age or family. She had dropped her last name ever since she ran away and it only took a few years to earn herself a ship of her own.

The captain of the Night Heron had considered herself more of a privateer than a pirate. After all it was her duty to help thin the competition. With the loss of Luskan though, the seas became that much less safe.

Whatever happened to Orlumbor had upset Waterdeep. They had reacted by fielding fleets of patrols ships all along the coast.

Not willing to work for the Tyrant of Mintarn, Laila had opted to turn to smuggling. She wasn't the only one. She still had trouble believing Herask was not a smuggler. Not that he didn't still hit a merchant ship occasionally.

In fact he was the one who had given her the tip. Something he had found on the last ship he struck. Given he was usually more of a gambler than she was, the fact that he passed it up made her cautious.

Sure he said he had a very lucrative deal going. And he was spending enough gold to support that. And he was one of her few surviving friends. But he could also be angling to cut down potential competition. Sadly she didn't have a choice.

The damn Godswar had made a mess of everything. While most of the gods seems to have been restricted, Umberlee seemed to be an exception. Horrific storms had wracked the seas, swallowing plenty of ships. There was a reason Herask was one of her few living friends.

She might have survived, but hiding in a port was not cheap. In fact it was downright expensive. Fees, repairs, pay for guards and supplies. It all added up. She was damn near broke.

Still, it was the Whalebones. The place was empty and nothing lived there but a bunch of primitives.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The first sign that things had changed was the birds. Not sea gulls or anything else she recognized. Large birds. Laila had heard that there were rocs on some of the Whalebones, but these were too small. The wrong shape too.

They looked off. Like a heron, but distorted. Chubby body, legs too thick, wings much too wide. Pulling out the spyglass she took a closer look. Those weren't herons.

Unless herons were ten feet long with matching wingspans. If Laila didn't know better she'd think they were terror birds. Except they can't fly. At all. And these were flying pretty fast. Much faster than her ship was moving in fact.

Then there was the riders.

aerith

For one Harkle Harpell the past few years had been rough. First his girlfriend had died in the attack on Luskan. He had thrown himself into his studies to master enough divination to discover more. Only to find she didn't even exist. She was some kind of spy for the former Arcane Brotherhood.

He had barely processed that fact when one of the worst winters in Longsaddle history had struck. A full third of the farmer's herds died from the cold, wolves and other predators. He hadn't notice at the time. Too busy with his own losses. The winter had brought a fever that had taken both his grandfather and father.

With them dead and despite only being fifteen, Harkle was now head of the family. He tried his best, wanting to do them proud. He had even solved one of the major issues of the farmers. Feeding and sheltering their herds. His animal shrinking wards were perfect.

Beshaba seemed to have curse him though. The farm was only a year old, just long enough to show definite results, when the Godswar began. Magic ran rampant and uncontrolled. He had lost an uncle and niece before banning casting inside the city for the duration.

Everyone had breathed out a sight of relief at Ao's announcement. Harkle had been eager to get back to his farm project. Only to discover it no longer worked. Despite the new Mystra's promise, so much had changed. Spell wards, other than a dispelling screen, no longer seemed to exist. Everything he had been working on was now a waste of time.

Harkle didn't have time to fall apart though. The drow were already marching and his friends needed him. So he went to the newly recovered Mithril Hall. Longsaddle was small so he was only able to bring fifty Longriders, but his uncles Bidderdoo and Regweld and even his beautiful cousin Bella had volunteered as well.

Normally he might have even enjoyed the battles. They had given Harkle plenty of opportunities to study drow and even illithids. He had been able to try out new spells and strategies. And then Regweld died. He helped with the clean up, but his heart wasn't in it anymore. He had just lost too much.

If it wasn't for his cousin Bella he might have fallen into despair. She had given him the kick in the britches he needed at the time, reminding Harkle that he was a Harpell. They never gave up. From the first one, who started off as an escaped slave and crossed half a continent to start a town in the middle of the wilderness.

If magic had changed. Than so had the rules. Which meant there was more to discover! Everything they knew could be wrong. It had to be checked. Old projects might now be possible. This wasn't a problem. This was an opportunity.

Bella's talk had been just what he needed. Harkle had felt a renewed sense of purpose and once more thrown himself into his studies as well as rulership of Longsaddle. Recovery was slow. Longsaddle was never rich, most of the profits the Harpells generated being spent on research materials and repairs. The Fuzzy Quarterstaff had been rebuilt three times now and few remembered the fur growing accident that had given it it's name.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

News of a hobgoblin mage had not taken long to spread through the small town. Hobgoblins were normally very martial and scorned softer arts like magic. Yet one had appeared that wielded fire.

That wasn't the only odd thing. Hobgoblins rarely traveled alone. They were militaristic and usually moved in full squads or larger units, but here was one alone.

The final oddity was that hobgoblins were raiders. They produced little, usually only enough to replace their own equipment. They never traded. Instead acquiring resources by raiding. Yet the long mage was waiting outside the town wall.

Harkle was jumped at the chance. Paperwork was horrible stuff, but if he ignored it Bella would glare at him. And with her unique eyes her glare was very intimidating. Besides, the hobgolin hadn't killed anyone yet and that might change if another patrol attacked him.

Sadly, Harkle was many things. Athletic was not one of them. And in his haste he had forgotten to grab a horse. He took almost an hour to reach the gate only to hear the steady roar of a large fire.

He wanted to run the rest of the way, but experience told him how stupid that would be. If Longsaddle was under attack he would need his breath. He readied himself for battle, glad he took the time to prepare a Wall of Ice this morning.

Huh.

Well that certainly changes things. Seeing the hobgoblin casually roasting a freshly butchered horse over a large fire was definitely not what he expected. Harkle looked around. Noting that all the guards were still alive, even if a number were burned. Then at the four horses that were very much dead.

He hid a wince. Horses were expensive. The puddlejumpers even more so since without Regweld they were very difficult to breed. He missed the days when he didn't have to worry about money.

The guards were keeping well back and making sure not to point any weapons at the hobgoblin. He sighed. At least none of the guards had died.

Next Harkle turned to the hobgoblin. He was tall, even sitting it was obvious he was taller than everyone else. Maybe some ogre blood? Well dressed. Leather armor that looks well maintained. No cracks or large patches and well oiled. No weapons, which made sense for a mage.

Huh. It seems his war experiences were useful for once.

And then there was the belt. A number of small pouches for spell components. Two of them was odd though. Extra supplies for battle? Exotic spells?

Harkle reflexively tensed, ready to analyze, when he saw the hobgoblin grab some powder from one of the pouches. Except then the hobgoblin just sprinkled it on the meat being roasted. The fire heated the powder and he could smell... sage?

Is he cooking?

He felt excited. Clearly the hobgoblin was friendly. Or at least not too hostile. Then he was waved over and offered a spit of meat. He politely declined. No point taking chances. He had some recent experiences with poisons. Nasty stuff. Still a gesture had been made. It was only polite to respond.

"Welcome traveler, to Longsaddle!"

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The hobgoblin was named Garth and he was there was an ambassador. Which sounded crazy. But also very interesting.

The Skullfire Legion sounded like a typical hobgoblin tribe. Maybe a bit obsessed with fire. Except they had at least one mage and wanted to settle down. Or as they put it, conquer the Surbrin Hills.

Garth had a map too. Showing how they had taken over the odd wet and misty area along the Surbrin river. They were using the two rivers as borders too, which meant Longsaddle wouldn't have any problems with them.

The best part was that they wanted to trade. The furs they had to offer were all in high demand since they were very warm. The unique firestarters were even more valuable. A unique magical item, it just looked like a tiny ivory knife, but it was able to start a fire within seconds. Harkle was temped agree to a trade deal just to get ahold of one to experiment on.

Besides, a trade deal can only help matters. Harkle had taken the opportunity to scry on the location Garth had given him and seen the massive fortress. The hobgoblins were dug in deep. Rooting them out would take a war. Which means they'll be able to survive anything the barbarians, orcs and bandits try.

They clearly had a fair amount of magic. Sure it was kind of out of the way, but the fact no one noticed it being built isn't possible without some kind of magic. And then there was Garth. Highly educated if his speech was any indication. At least moderately powerful too from the guard's reactions.

No, if the hobgoblins want to trade, best to let them. Much better than having them selling to bandits. And if the hobgoblins really are trying to form a new society, this will give him a first hand view of the process. He'll be able to study it from their very first city!

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Harkle, not wanting to waste any time, had visited Skullfire Keep as soon as he could. Sadly that meant he had to bring his work with him. Which meant he had a bunch of merchants following along.

He was so excited. The view from the scrying mirror had been too close to get a real look at the place other than to give an impression of being large. Now he'll be able to see it himself.

It didn't disappoint. Frankly, it was massive. Giant walls, bristling with guard towers marked the border of the castle. The gatehouse, which he normally would consider quite big, seemed modest in comparison.

The guards at the entrance provided him with a guide. He'd have been insulted except it was already obvious how much magic had been used here. All the stonework he could see was perfectly smooth and seamless. Definitely not natural. Who knows what other defenses they have?

It seems he was right too. The gatehouse was filled with a thick cloud of mist. Even worse was the compulsion field woven into it. It was a subtle thing, tugging at his mind, trying to suggest other directions to walk. Without the guide and the line of torches he could see how people could easily get get lost.

The lack of a gatehouse on the next wall did not help. Or rather should he say, real gatehouse. It took him a moment and an explanation from the guide to realize the one they were facing was fake. It seems the hobgoblins really liked distracting people.

Walking along the second wall was interesting. Unlike outside the castle, the land here was clearly being used. Small plots of various vegetables were planted in the ground. It did kind of give away the right direction since they hadn't planted any on the right path. A bit unprofessional, but also a sign they might really be able to pull off the switch to civilization. At least the permanent small stone path seemed to run the entire length of the wall.

The second wall was also where he started seeing decorations. Actual skulls wreathed in fire were placed periodically along it, serving as torches. A bit morbid, but at least it explained their name. Or did they fashion them after their name? Something to ask about when studying their history.

The third wall was more of the same. The only difference was that there was now a few animals in wooden pens. Nothing substantial enough to provide cover, but enough for a few goats and chickens. He was a bit surprised they didn't seem to keep any rothe. Maybe they preferred smaller animals?

The fourth wall was much more serious farms. It was obvious they had put a lot of work in setting them up. It was also the first time he saw that they kept slaves. Although he supposes not many will object to enslaving common goblins. After all most people just kill them on sight.

When Harkle asked about it the guide eagerly explained. It also turns out most of the fake gatehouses go a bit underground to house the goblin slaves. They have a lot more slaves than he realized, but they usually only work at night. It was only because the inner farms were so close to harvest that goblins were out right now.

Harkle gasped as he realized what the hobgoblins had done. The large fiery decorations sandwiched between large stone walls mean the ground doesn't freeze at night. The extra light and heat mean crops grow faster. Depending on how effective those decorations are they might even be able to grow crops during the winter.

The trade agreement was already paying off! It wouldn't be difficult to set up something similar for Longsaddle. Rather than lots of torches though he could copy Neverwinter. Maybe not the volcano part, but surely a single large magical fire would be more effective than lots of smaller ones.

Cheaper too, which sadly is a factor. Once again Harkle mourns the circumstances that made him the leader of Longsaddle. Accounting is so boring. At least this time the fun option is the better one.


	16. interlude: Harkle

Chapter 16 Interlude: Harkle

For one Harkle Harpell the past few years had been rough. First his girlfriend had died in the attack on Luskan. He had thrown himself into his studies to master enough divination to discover more. Only to find she didn't even exist. She was some kind of spy for the former Arcane Brotherhood.

He had barely processed that fact when one of the worst winters in Longsaddle history had struck. A full third of the farmer's herds died from the cold, wolves and other predators. He hadn't notice at the time. Too busy with his own losses. The winter had brought a fever that had taken both his grandfather and father.

With them dead and despite only being fifteen, Harkle was now head of the family. He tried his best, wanting to do them proud. He had even solved one of the major issues of the farmers. Feeding and sheltering their herds. His animal shrinking wards were perfect.

Beshaba seemed to have curse him though. The farm was only a year old, just long enough to show definite results, when the Godswar began. Magic ran rampant and uncontrolled. He had lost an uncle and niece before banning casting inside the city for the duration.

Everyone had breathed out a sight of relief at Ao's announcement. Harkle had been eager to get back to his farm project. Only to discover it no longer worked. Despite the new Mystra's promise, so much had changed. Spell wards, other than a dispelling screen, no longer seemed to exist. Everything he had been working on was now a waste of time.

Harkle didn't have time to fall apart though. The drow were already marching and his friends needed him. So he went to the newly recovered Mithril Hall. Longsaddle was small so he was only able to bring fifty Longriders, but his uncles Bidderdoo and Regweld and even his beautiful cousin Bella had volunteered as well.

Normally he might have even enjoyed the battles. They had given Harkle plenty of opportunities to study drow and even illithids. He had been able to try out new spells and strategies. And then Regweld died. He helped with the clean up, but his heart wasn't in it anymore. He had just lost too much.

If it wasn't for his cousin Bella he might have fallen into despair. She had given him the kick in the britches he needed at the time, reminding Harkle that he was a Harpell. They never gave up. From the first one, who started off as an escaped slave and crossed half a continent to start a town in the middle of the wilderness.

If magic had changed. Than so had the rules. Which meant there was more to discover! Everything they knew could be wrong. It had to be checked. Old projects might now be possible. This wasn't a problem. This was an opportunity.

Bella's talk had been just what he needed. Harkle had felt a renewed sense of purpose and once more thrown himself into his studies as well as rulership of Longsaddle. Recovery was slow. Longsaddle was never rich, most of the profits the Harpells generated being spent on research materials and repairs. The Fuzzy Quarterstaff had been rebuilt three times now and few remembered the fur growing accident that had given it it's name.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

News of a hobgoblin mage had not taken long to spread through the small town. Hobgoblins were normally very martial and scorned softer arts like magic. Yet one had appeared that wielded fire.

That wasn't the only odd thing. Hobgoblins rarely traveled alone. They were militaristic and usually moved in full squads or larger units, but here was one alone.

The final oddity was that hobgoblins were raiders. They produced little, usually only enough to replace their own equipment. They never traded. Instead acquiring resources by raiding. Yet the long mage was waiting outside the town wall.

Harkle was jumped at the chance. Paperwork was horrible stuff, but if he ignored it Bella would glare at him. And with her unique eyes her glare was very intimidating. Besides, the hobgolin hadn't killed anyone yet and that might change if another patrol attacked him.

Sadly, Harkle was many things. Athletic was not one of them. And in his haste he had forgotten to grab a horse. He took almost an hour to reach the gate only to hear the steady roar of a large fire.

He wanted to run the rest of the way, but experience told him how stupid that would be. If Longsaddle was under attack he would need his breath. He readied himself for battle, glad he took the time to prepare a Wall of Ice this morning.

Huh.

Well that certainly changes things. Seeing the hobgoblin casually roasting a freshly butchered horse over a large fire was definitely not what he expected. Harkle looked around. Noting that all the guards were still alive, even if a number were burned. Then at the four horses that were very much dead.

He hid a wince. Horses were expensive. The puddlejumpers even more so since without Regweld they were very difficult to breed. He missed the days when he didn't have to worry about money.

The guards were keeping well back and making sure not to point any weapons at the hobgoblin. He sighed. At least none of the guards had died.

Next Harkle turned to the hobgoblin. He was tall, even sitting it was obvious he was taller than everyone else. Maybe some ogre blood? Well dressed. Leather armor that looks well maintained. No cracks or large patches and well oiled. No weapons, which made sense for a mage.

Huh. It seems his war experiences were useful for once.

And then there was the belt. A number of small pouches for spell components. Two of them was odd though. Extra supplies for battle? Exotic spells?

Harkle reflexively tensed, ready to analyze, when he saw the hobgoblin grab some powder from one of the pouches. Except then the hobgoblin just sprinkled it on the meat being roasted. The fire heated the powder and he could smell... sage?

Is he cooking?

He felt excited. Clearly the hobgoblin was friendly. Or at least not too hostile. Then he was waved over and offered a spit of meat. He politely declined. No point taking chances. He had some recent experiences with poisons. Nasty stuff. Still a gesture had been made. It was only polite to respond.

"Welcome traveler, to Longsaddle!"

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The hobgoblin was named Garth and he was there was an ambassador. Which sounded crazy. But also very interesting.

The Skullfire Legion sounded like a typical hobgoblin tribe. Maybe a bit obsessed with fire. Except they had at least one mage and wanted to settle down. Or as they put it, conquer the Surbrin Hills.

Garth had a map too. Showing how they had taken over the odd wet and misty area along the Surbrin river. They were using the two rivers as borders too, which meant Longsaddle wouldn't have any problems with them.

The best part was that they wanted to trade. The furs they had to offer were all in high demand since they were very warm. The unique firestarters were even more valuable. A unique magical item, it just looked like a tiny ivory knife, but it was able to start a fire within seconds. Harkle was temped agree to a trade deal just to get ahold of one to experiment on.

Besides, a trade deal can only help matters. Harkle had taken the opportunity to scry on the location Garth had given him and seen the massive fortress. The hobgoblins were dug in deep. Rooting them out would take a war. Which means they'll be able to survive anything the barbarians, orcs and bandits try.

They clearly had a fair amount of magic. Sure it was kind of out of the way, but the fact no one noticed it being built isn't possible without some kind of magic. And then there was Garth. Highly educated if his speech was any indication. At least moderately powerful too from the guard's reactions.

No, if the hobgoblins want to trade, best to let them. Much better than having them selling to bandits. And if the hobgoblins really are trying to form a new society, this will give him a first hand view of the process. He'll be able to study it from their very first city!

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Harkle, not wanting to waste any time, had visited Skullfire Keep as soon as he could. Sadly that meant he had to bring his work with him. Which meant he had a bunch of merchants following along.

He was so excited. The view from the scrying mirror had been too close to get a real look at the place other than to give an impression of being large. Now he'll be able to see it himself.

It didn't disappoint. Frankly, it was massive. Giant walls, bristling with guard towers marked the border of the castle. The gatehouse, which he normally would consider quite big, seemed modest in comparison.

The guards at the entrance provided him with a guide. He'd have been insulted except it was already obvious how much magic had been used here. All the stonework he could see was perfectly smooth and seamless. Definitely not natural. Who knows what other defenses they have?

It seems he was right too. The gatehouse was filled with a thick cloud of mist. Even worse was the compulsion field woven into it. It was a subtle thing, tugging at his mind, trying to suggest other directions to walk. Without the guide and the line of torches he could see how people could easily get get lost.

The lack of a gatehouse on the next wall did not help. Or rather should he say, real gatehouse. It took him a moment and an explanation from the guide to realize the one they were facing was fake. It seems the hobgoblins really liked distracting people.

Walking along the second wall was interesting. Unlike outside the castle, the land here was clearly being used. Small plots of various vegetables were planted in the ground. It did kind of give away the right direction since they hadn't planted any on the right path. A bit unprofessional, but also a sign they might really be able to pull off the switch to civilization. At least the permanent small stone path seemed to run the entire length of the wall.

The second wall was also where he started seeing decorations. Actual skulls wreathed in fire were placed periodically along it, serving as torches. A bit morbid, but at least it explained their name. Or did they fashion them after their name? Something to ask about when studying their history.

The third wall was more of the same. The only difference was that there was now a few animals in wooden pens. Nothing substantial enough to provide cover, but enough for a few goats and chickens. He was a bit surprised they didn't seem to keep any rothe. Maybe they preferred smaller animals?

The fourth wall was much more serious farms. It was obvious they had put a lot of work in setting them up. It was also the first time he saw that they kept slaves. Although he supposes not many will object to enslaving common goblins. After all most people just kill them on sight.

When Harkle asked about it the guide eagerly explained. It also turns out most of the fake gatehouses go a bit underground to house the goblin slaves. They have a lot more slaves than he realized, but they usually only work at night. It was only because the inner farms were so close to harvest that goblins were out right now.

Harkle gasped as he realized what the hobgoblins had done. The large fiery decorations sandwiched between large stone walls mean the ground doesn't freeze at night. The extra light and heat mean crops grow faster. Depending on how effective those decorations are they might even be able to grow crops during the winter.

The trade agreement was already paying off! It wouldn't be difficult to set up something similar for Longsaddle. Rather than lots of torches though he could copy Neverwinter. Maybe not the volcano part, but surely a single large magical fire would be more effective than lots of smaller ones.

Cheaper too, which sadly is a factor. Once again Harkle mourns the circumstances that made him the leader of Longsaddle. Accounting is sooo boring. At least this time the fun option is the better one.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

As the guide gave him the tour, Harkle was busy analyzing everything he could see. Overall he was getting an odd impression. Skullfire Keep, and they really need to come up with a better name, was very obviously new. It lacked almost everything but the bare necessities. Even things like blankets were in short supply.

They also lacked the access to magic that setting all this up would have required. Which meant there was more going on than he was seeing. A hidden backer maybe? Harkle hated these kinds of shadow games. They were all just so annoying. Why can't people just come out say what they wanted and intended?

What they did have though was very high quality, like they brought it with them instead of made it. Such as the elaborate processing plant they had passed that was full of hydra heads. By the color of it's scales it was a pyrohydra too. And the fangs were the exact same color as those fire starters.

Harkle never would have thought to use necromancy to create such a mundane item. And one involving fire too! It was another piece of the puzzle that the hobgoblins represented.

The official leader was a hobgoblin named Thriz. Except he wasn't a mage and he hadn't seen any mages since Garth had left. Was Garth that powerful? And if not, who made this place

Harkle seriously started contemplating how much trouble he'd get into by slapping a permanent Zone of Truth on himself. Anyone wants to talk to him, they can't lie. At all. And it wasn't like he had anything to hide. People were usually were more concerned with trying to get him to stop talking.

Not that it would do him much good right now. The hobgoblins were remarkably open, freely answering almost every question asked. It turns out this was their third settlement. The first two having been destroyed by marauding paladins. The hobgoblins here were just the survivors. Which explains the elaborate defenses.

They threw around a few other names, but nothing Harkle recognized. And none sounded like they were still around. From what he heard though it sounded like at least one of them was an archmage. Likely this place was made with something left behind.

Only thing he can think of is a staff though. Which would be impressive. Definitely something only an archmage could make. Unfortunately also likely drained since they don't seem to be using it anymore.

Harkle had noticed a series of odd stone platforms outside the walls, but had thought they were range markers. After all they had been placed every fifty paces. When talking to Thriz he had realized they were foundations. There were plans for new sets of walls regularly spaced out. They were also planning on building the walls from stone mined from a quarry.

It was ambitious and even better very defensive. Almost paranoid. It also meant the hobgoblins were very unlikely to try to rapidly spread out any time soon.

Actual negotiations were quick. Thriz was very blunt, much like a dwarf and had no desire to really haggle. They agreed to use the river as a boundary, trade with each other and tentatively ally. Thankfully as part of the deal Thriz also agreed to change the name of the place. Although Harkle wasn't sure if Pyre Citadel was much of an improvement. At least it wasn't as blatantly evil sounding.

As he left the citadel Harkle once more saw the rings of stone platforms. There had to be at least a dozen of them. He resolved to arrange to hire out some of his family to help. The Harpell library had plenty of earth spells and a little goodwill just makes things easier in the long run.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Harkle might have gone home secure in his impression of paranoid refugees if not for what happened next. He spotted a caravan.

It puzzled him. After all it was coming from the north. There weren't any cities in that direction for quite a ways. They weren't even roads. All the towns near the Evermoors prefer to use barges.

Now there was an idea. While most frontier towns tend to be fairly insular and judgmental, opening a port could pave the way for friendlier relations. And the trade opportunities couldn't hurt. There wasn't much reason not to at least try either. No series of barges could carry enough people to threaten Pyre Citadel even now.

As the caravan drew closer Harkle realized they weren't merchants or raiders. In fact they were hobgoblins, doubtless from the quarry. What wasn't normal was what was pulling the wagons. Bears.

Normally bears would be a horrible choice. Dangerous and too aggressive to be willing to pull heavy loads for long periods of time. And providing enough food for them was also an issue. They also tended to become tired faster than animals bred for stamina.

Except none of that applied when they were turned into zombies. In fact bears were superior as a choice once they're undead. Powerful and able to defend itself. It's only issue was that it required a mage to control.

It's a shame about the meat though. Sweet and rich. Bears tasted amazing. Maybe he can convince the hobgoblins to raise a few for trade. It'd be nice to have more regular access to bear meat.

Shaking his head, Harkle focuses back on the caravan. He can make out two who seem to be mages. Judging from the quality of equipment, the mages here were much weaker than Garth.

Maybe that's why he hadn't run into any mages in the citadel? They were all at the quarry? And Garth had been in a hurry when he left. Maybe heading back to run the place?

It made a strange kind of sense. Mages tend to be used only for the most important projects. And clearly the hobgoblins loved their walls. And given how militarized they all acted, the mages would probably just be treated as a specialist unit.

A major undertaking like that meant the walls were likely going to be finished much faster than he had first thought. Mages would help, but were clearly not vital. Which is good. The Weave had been behaving oddly ever since the Godswar.

A thought suddenly struck him. When he had been riding past the walls it had felt like all the fiery skulls had been glaring at him. At the time he dismissed it as another illusion. But seeing the zombies... could those be more undead?

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

A surprisingly quiet Harkle came back to Longsaddle. Despite how open the hobgoblins acted he had more questions than ever. Still, at least some mysteries had been cleared up. Such as the source of the fire starters.

Also their source for iron. Harkle hadn't missed how many of the wagons hauling stone were made from poor quality wood held together by iron bands. And the citadel itself used it liberally, many times using it in place of wood.

He wasn't sure if they had a limited supply or were just using everything they could find, but the trade agreement listed what they were offering and iron clearly wasn't listed. Still if they're using it for things like doors and wagons they aren't gearing up for war. And maybe once they can get decent wood, they'll be willing to trade some. Something he can happily point out.

Besides even if they do go to war, as their sole ally Longsaddle was probably the safest place from them. Although given how unstable things had been recently, maybe building a few walls of their own will be a good idea.


	17. interlude: Laila

Chapter 17 Interlude: Laila

Laila had always considered herself a patriot. Well, as close to one as possible in a city like Luskan. Still she loved her city for the way it ignored age or family. For the way they rewarded cunning and ruthlessness. The way success mattered more than fancy parents.

The last was the most important since she didn't have any parents. Not since they tried to sell her and she had run away. With no other option she had signed onto a ship. She had never regretted it.

She had dropped her last name when signing, not wanting to leave a trace. It hadn't taken long to realize no one cared. It was liberating and she had thrived in her new life. Even eventually earning a ship of her own.

The captain of the Night Heron had considered herself more of a privateer than a pirate. After all Laila considered it her duty to help thin the competition. With the loss of Luskan though, she lost her excuse and the seas became that much less safe.

Then came Orlumbor. No one was sure what happened, but the entire population had vanished. Another port gone. Worse it had upset Waterdeep. They had reacted by fielding fleets of patrols ships all along the coast.

Not willing to work for the Tyrant of Mintarn, Laila had opted to turn to smuggling. She wasn't the only one. She still had trouble believing Herask was now a smuggler. He was always so aggressive before. It was one of the reasons she had never gotten along with him.

Shared loss in the form of their home had mellowed him. At least a bit. Enough to make him tolerable. That or it let her put up with him better.

She still had trouble believing he was a smuggler. Herask was many things, but smooth was not on that list. He was abrasive, reckless and had problems with any kind of authority. Who would trust someone like that?

The evidence was there though. First he hired a bunch of new crew, replacing the dregs he had been running with before. Even picking up some mercenaries. Then the trips start. Vanishing for a week or two. Coming back with a lot of gold to spend.

Crazy part was? Herask didn't say anything about his job. Hard to believe from someone as loud as him. His crew didn't say anything either. Any that tried blew up. Literally exploded. Whoever Herask was working with was seriously dangerous.

He didn't run jobs all the time. Months would go by without one. Herask would usually hit a merchant when he got bored. Always swaggering into the bars, bragging about it.

Herask still swaggered. But it was more about how great he was, not the job he pulled. It would be incredibly annoying if he didn't keep buying people drinks to show off.

In fact he was the one who had given her the tip. Something he had found on the last ship he struck. Given he was usually more of a gambler than she was, the fact that he passed it up made her cautious.

Sure he said he had another trip coming up. But he could also be angling to cut down potential competition. After all she was one of the captains who were more than a little curious who Herask was working for. Sadly she didn't have much of a choice.

The damn Godswar had made a mess of everything. While most of the gods seems to have been restricted, Umberlee seemed to be an exception. Horrific storms had wracked the seas, swallowing plenty of ships. There was a reason Herask was one of her few living friends.

She might have survived, but hiding in a port was not cheap. In fact it was downright expensive. Fees, repairs, pay for guards and supplies. It all added up. She was damn near broke and had barely been able to scrape together enough people to set sail.

Still, it was the Whalebones. The place was empty and nothing lived there but a bunch of primitives.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The first sign that things had changed was the birds. Not sea gulls or anything else she recognized. Large birds. Laila had heard that there were rocs on some of the Whalebones, but these were too small. The wrong shape too.

They looked off. Pulling out the spyglass she took a closer look. Definitely not rocs. More like a heron, but distorted. Chubby body, legs too thick, wings much too wide. They reminded her of terror birds. Except for the flying part.

But if you took a terror bird and give it a twenty foot wingspan it would be fairly close. They certainly flew as vigorously as terror birds ran. They were much faster than any other bird she could remember seeing.

Then there was the riders. They were what gave her the scale to realize how large the birds were. Humans or elves given the proportions. Couldn't tell since they were wearing full plate, which is an insane choice at sea.

Although the armor wasn't normal plate. It looked like it was made from clay. All bright enamel paints and such. Black, white and red colors. She was also certain she had never seen that style before.

Oddly she couldn't make out any weapons. Which made her very nervous. The only reason not to be armed was because you didn't need it. Which meant they were mages. Magic was always dangerous, but never more so than at sea, where a single fire spell could doom them all.

The riders circled above for a bit before flying away. Laila couldn't help but note that they were flying in the same direction she was headed. Looks like she's going to get a chance to see that armor close up soon enough.

At least they didn't sink her.

It wasn't until the next day that the Night Heron was close enough for Laila to make out the Whalebones. It worried her because that shouldn't have been possible. They were still several days out. The Whalebones were small, to see them you had to practically be on top of them.

As they sailed closer she could see the Whalebones were no longer the small scattering of sandy beaches everyone described them as. And she couldn't see even a single whale skeleton.

Instead a massive city seems to have replaced it. A cluster of tall slender towers rose from the sea, each branching off into a series of large turrets. A maze of covered walkways connected everything together. The buildings were all white or cream colored stone with enormous windows she should see even now.

It was odd and looked horribly vulnerable. If she hadn't seen the riders she might even have been tempted to try a quick raid. Although seeing the dozen riders fly out to meet her probably would have convinced her otherwise.

The riders hover above them before one holds his arm out and suddenly has a flaming spear in his hand. It was cold comfort that they did have magic. Not when she was so vulnerable. When he gestures Laila makes very sure to not fall behind.

The escorts don't seem to mind her spyglass and Laila takes the opportunity to study as much as she can. The situation is dangerous and she don't know nearly enough to make any decisions. Drawing closer though reveals they really are heading to the Whalebone islands. The giant forest of towers had been built on top of them. At least that part of the information is accurate.

When they guide her sideways Laila doesn't protest. She had seen the white froth that meant a reef up ahead. The fact that the Whalebones doesn't have a coral reef worries her even more. A flaming weapon is dangerous, but making reefs? That's high level magic like the Arcane Brotherhood used to wield.

As the thread their way through the reefs, Laila realized they're heading for a very small port. In fact it's barely more than pair of docks. And besides the docks were freely roaming creatures. They looked like walruses, except smaller and sleeker.

And for some reason incredibly quiet. Which is what really drove home they were a difference species. The last time she had seen a small herd of walruses she had nearly gone deaf. That's when she realized she couldn't hear the waves either. At least not from the shore.

Some kind of area silencing spell. And another example of just how much magic these people possessed. It was then Laila made a promise to herself. If she made it out of here, she was going to kill Herask.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The riders all left once she pulled into the dock. Laila wasn't sure if that was just confidence or arrogance. Although maybe the person waiting to greet her didn't need them?

The person waiting was female and had large wings. That was also about all she could tell. The woman wore an armored robe along with a mask. You couldn't see much, but she moved like she was beautiful. Graceful and elegant with an air of confidence.

The parts that weren't covered, such as hair, wings and eyes, were all softly glowing. It was hypnotic too, the way the colors slowly shifted. And also a sign of yet more magic she had never heard of.

"Greetings traveller. I am Aerith and will serve as your guide Welcome to Moscow." With that the winged lady started walking.

Laila followed, but she was getting scared. People rarely were very welcoming without a reason. And since she had never heard of them before they obviously wanted her here. It wasn't for trade either. Just sending an ambassador to Waterdeep would have brought all the traders they could want.

She could think of all kinds of less publicaly acceptable reasons to want visitors though. None of them good for her. Unfortunately leaving really wasn't an option now. Maybe if she surrenders? Promises them slaves?

Laila's racing thoughts ground to a halt as Aerith started speaking. Desperately looking for clues on her intentions it took her a moment to realize she was being given... a tour.

Most of it went way over her head, but she understood enough. The things she considered most important. She was safe. They really did want to trade. They had no maps. In fact she was their first visitor.

It was all Laila could do to keep from crackling. This was a priceless opportunity. Screw Herask. Now she also had an amazingly lucrative deal. Even better since she didn't have to run any stupid errands.

All she had to do was find a market for the amazingly cheap ivory, pearls and nacre they offered. Not to mention seal and shark skin. And brightly colored coral. And a host of other products.

Easiest job ever. Laila did find it a bit odd that they weren't offering anything besides raw materials, but their explanation just hurt her head. All she got from it was that there weren't many of them left and they called themselves Eldar.

The tour did give her at least a few clues. Aerith at least was an elf. She caught a glimpse of a pointed ear while they were walking around. Which made her an avariel. She had seen other avariels too. All dressed in the same uniform. Even spoke to one. She had talked with the same slow, careful way Aerith did.

Between the uniform and way of speaking it implied a standard. Like they were all intended to serve as waiters or spokesmen. The riders ignored her. They also didn't have wings. Which meant they were probably half-breeds. Elves seem to like that kind of thing.

Laila felt a bit sympathetic for the warriors. Working so hard their entire life just to be accepted. She doesn't try to speak to any though. If anything that makes her more cautious of them. Most of the half-elf specialist troops she's met were incredibly dangerous. They even had a fancy name. Wind Riders.

Lailas first real impression of Moscow was to fall in love. There was a reason she named her ship the Night Heron. And seeing the giant marble herons stalking the grounds was amazing. Both beautiful and effective. Much like how she likes to think of herself. She wonders how hard it would be to buy one for her ship.

She even got to tour the aviary. Seeing the large glass and clay birds that had been flying above earlier. It was a bit sad Moscow didn't have any real herons, but at least they seemed to share her love of the creatures.

Laila's second impression was pity. It was unexpected. After all she had been quite terrified initially. But Moscow was just so empty. It had rooms and halls, sweeping bridges and even small parks. None of it being used. Moscow was meant for a population of thousands. Her impression though was that there were only a few hundred Eldar left.

She had seen the training grounds. Massive stone courtyards with breathtaking views. And only used by a dozen or so warriors. Moscow, rather than being impressive, it just felt lonely.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

In the end Laila almost hated to leave Moscow. For all their power, the Eldar were remarkably generous and trusting. Despite having just met they extended her more than enough credit to get a full load of cargo. Not that she had any intention of betraying them. Not after what she had seen.

A roc, with a wingspan the size of her ship, had swooped by at one point. It tried to snatch one of the Wind Riders. Seeing the casual grace with which he swung his arm, summoning a giant sword mid-swing was impressive. Seeing the same arm blur as it shredded the gigantic creature was terrifying.

Definitely half-elves.

As she sailed away, all Laila could do was shake her head. As a half-elf herself, she could sympathize with the Wind Riders. What she couldn't do was understand them.

Why devote yourself to a race that looks down on you. Why work so hard for people who will never appreciate it?

Laila shook her head to clear out her thoughts. The world is full of people that don't make sense. She supposes her own race is no different. And despite how they treat their half-elves, they had treated her just fine.

The Eldar had even 'gifted' her a pair of the black marble guard birds. Now she had real 'night herons' to serve as mascots. With a hold full of goods, an agreement for the future and two wonderful new toys the future is looking bright.

Ironically the only thing to worry about now were pirates.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Laila sailed into Neverwinter on a river of blood. She regretted it, but in the end she just couldn't afford to keep her current crew. They were a liability. Besides, paying them enough to keep quiet would have cut into her profits too much.

Obviously Neverwinter was a bit leery of her. Even explaining it as a mutiny and a generous bribe couldn't help the reputation she had gained. They posted extra guards on her ship and kept a close watch on her. Maybe she should have killed everyone a few hours earlier?

Laila had forgotten that Neverwinter, despite it's ties to Luskan, was much more peaceful. They weren't used to seeing massacres. They didn't even have to deal with pirates because of their alliance with Luskan. Or at least they didn't use to. Who knows now.

Laila was really clad she hadn't gone to Waterdeep now. The soft people there would have likely kicked her out. Maybe even thrown her in jail for defending herself. That and she might have been recognized from her days as a privateer.

The merchants were a bit nervous dealing with someone the guards seemed suspicious of. Thankfully Laila was very persuasive. Even better thought, she had very high quality goods. It didn't take long for the merchants to start competing for her attention. Life was good.

It didn't take long to sell her cargo. Neverwinter was the largest and most northern port. It was used to dealing in ivory and seal fur. The shark skin wasn't as easy to sell, but once she showed the trick of wrapping a sword handle or covering a boot sole, everyone wanted some. She sold out within an hour and could see a huge boom in the shark hunting industry sometime soon.

Good. The damn sahuagin were menaces. Let them deal with the losses to their holy creatures. It was about time they were the ones suffering.

Laila had managed to put together a new crew. They were all professional sailors and soldiers. In fact she had hired them specifically through the city. That way none of them can betray her without betraying their lord. Well worth the fees they charged.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Laila celebrated her success that evening at a very upscale inn. Fancy wines and a nice room. She had made more than enough to pay off her debt and afford a new load of cargo. Maybe she'll take a detour to rub her success in Herask's face. Send her off on a wild goose chase will he.

Her planning stopped abruptly when she actually her someone say Herask's name. Maybe one of the goddesses of luck was favoring her this evening.

The name was a sailor. Waterdhavian from his clothes. Professional. But also currently getting drunk and loudly muttering various complaints.

It was simple to glide over and flash him a smile. Interest from a pretty woman works so much better than torture. All for the price for a few cheap drinks. An old game and one she was very good at.

The tale the sailor spun though sounded like the ravings of a lunatic. Herask had been busy with his little errands. Rather than stay an errand boy, no matter how well paid, he had aimed for his own island.

Somehow he put together a half-dozen mercenary companies. All that gold he had been spending in taverns recently had given him quite a reputation. Laila wondered for a moment if it had all been an act before dismissing the thought. Herask was still to impulsive to have set something like this up.

Still, the mercenaries she recognized sounded perfect. The Krakens specialized in anti-piracy as well as assaulting ports. The Servants of the Royal Egg are famous for their indifference to losses. And while she hadn't heard of the Blue Sigil before, a group of ogres that large is always dangerous.

The sailor hadn't landed with them, but had been able to keep watch with a spyglass. Herask had some fancy device that let them get past the towers. However, it didn't effect the rest of the island. Which from the sounds of it, was a nightmare. Like the entire forest was alive and trying to eat them. Vine that tried to strangle them, trees that grabbed and tore, bushes that threw thorns.

No one was happy despite their steady progress. However, not wanting to miss out on the city treasury they pressed on. Except when they reached the vault, they barely found a few hundred gold. They were chasing Herask to lynch him when his fancy device stopped working.

It was obvious too, which is the only reason any of them made it out. He started screaming and it lit up incredibly bright before exploding. And then every tower on the island started firing. Arrows, ballista bolts and iron spheres rained down. Including the ones on the port they had ignored in case it disrupted Herask's device.

Ten ships had sailed to Orlumbor. Only two made it out of the reefs and only because there hadn't been room to pull up to the docks. They had still taken heavy damage. So much that one of the ships had sank on the way back.

Truthfully Laila barely heard the last part of the sailor's story. Hearing that Herask died was a shock. She had wanted to kiss and stab him in equal parts for his tip. To find out he died in an insane venture like that...

Guess he really didn't change.


	18. Pushing Boundaries

Chapter 18 Pushing Boundaries

I felt a little bad about betraying Herask like that. Getting set on fire and then blowing up is a poor way to reward someone who had served me for so long. Sadly I needed a distraction and Herask had been drawing too much attention to himself recently. This nicely took care of both issues.

I needed the failed exploration too. Originally I intended to use Koger, but he was much too useful to sacrifice for such a small gain. Hence the overly large invasion that failed spectacularly.

The story will spread through word of mouth and grow with each retelling. Nosy mages will obsess over what kind of enchantments Herask had used to protect everyone. Adventurers will worry their own protections will backfire the same way. Add in the lack of any treasure and it's very unlikely anyone else will visit.

Which is good because I needed Orlumbor. I had originally intended it as a backup, but I was currently working as fast as possible to make it the primary base. It was annoying since I had put so much work into Dromund Kaas, but it wasn't safe.

During the Godswar, while expanding underground, we had broken into the Underdark. And while annoying, it would also be an opportunity to gather new resources. Except the only things we encountered were undead.

Not normal undead either. Patchwork creatures that look like they were put together after being animated. It took me a bit to figure out what it reminded me of. Which is reasonable since it wasn't DnD.

Necrocraft.

The art of creating amalgam undead from other undead or just body parts. Except the only rules I had ever found for it were in Exalted and Pathfinder. Could someone have invented it here?

I abruptly realized why they felt vaguely familiar. Because someone did invent it here. It was a unique skill and it had been the reason I used him as a villain in several of my campaigns. Daurgothoth, the Creeping Doom.

One of the most powerful, intelligent and paranoid dracoliches in Faerun. And I just found his lair. It wouldn't be an issue, except for another tidbit I remembered about him. Daergothoth was favored of Mystra. Elminster and her other Chosen were all expressly forbidden from even so much as harassing him. It's practically a divine mandate.

As interested as I am in necrocraft the most important part, knowing it's possible, is already done. With my resource base it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out on my own. Especially since I have several samples.

However I doubt Daurgothoth will leave a large settlement so close. So I collapse miles of tunnels and then fill in the last layer of Dromund Kaas. I still have plenty of room. I just need to create the special portals for them.

I stole the idea from Undermountain and the river portals it used. I basically did the same. Dug a pit in the bottom of one of the creeks. Piped the water down so that it flowed through each level. And at the very bottom created a portal that the river flowed through and back into the pond. But at the exit side.

I only created one so far, but it looks like I need to start making more. I need a base that isn't right next to an enemy. Hence Orlumbor. Or Mon Calamari.

Not that I limit myself. Salt water is not comfortable for lizardfolk of any kind, although brackish isn't too bad. So I also direct my bone nagas to start working on creating bases, and eventual portals, under Umbarra, Moscow and the Mere of Dead Men. Which needs a new name as well.

Komarr. For the gateway in the Vorkosigan series. And Vorkosigan certainly sounds russian. At least close enough that it's unlikely anyone will quibble over it.

Although Moscow will also need additional work. Such as the freshwater mist generators I'm installing in Mon Calamari. They weren't hard, just use one of the modified eversmoking bottles and fill it with water. Instead of flavored smoke, you get fog.

Combined with the freshwater stream I created from a Decanter of Endless Water and the flow I diverted from the sea and there was more than enough water to create layers of underground swamps. It'd be so much easier if I could just use neat stone buildings. Organized and efficient.

Unfortunately lizardfolk like swamps. Humidity makes it easier to breath. Hearing, smells and tastes are all magnified. Even sight since our eyes dry out easily. Walking on soft mud or grass doesn't hurt the way stone does.

At least it means I don't have to worry about my race trying to expand into the territories already considered civilized. That's a war I'm happy to avoid.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

My brush against Daurgothoth reminded me that there were other dracoliches around. More importantly, I know where and how several of them are killed. And even where one of their hoards were located.

You tend to remember your firsts. First kiss, first movie. And the first Forgotten Realms book I had read was Spellfire. Which meant I knew more than enough to start scrying.

The results were disappointing. Horribly so. Shandril Shessair, wielder of spellfire, was dead. Had been dead for years now. I had missed the entire trilogy.

Quickly I poured through my notes and starting scrying the rest of the world. Or at least had bone nagas doing so for me. I probably should have put together a spy network this was a long time ago. I guess it wasn't really possible before though. Not without the ability to create literally hundreds of simulacrum deepspawn.

I have one now though. It'll delay expansion efforts, but knowledge is power and a month long delay is a small price to pay. Besides, it's not like I can use the room. I don't have nearly enough lizardfolk to fill even Dromund Kaas and Mon Calamari.

Well, fill with adults at least. The new generation, fathered by Essylliss, are exceptionally energetic. They often make the two bases feel like they're already full.

The scrying network doesn't take long to start paying off. I missed quite a few events. The discovery of Maztica. The death of Azoun in Cormyr. And a few others. Thankfully most of the novels I've read take place after the Godswar so I still have time.

It also drove home just how much territory all the events sprawled over. I had gotten too used to judging things on the small confined areas I was working. I needed to fix that problem.

Towards that end I started two projects. One of them I had already done before. Increasing an animals speed in return for it's health and endurance. I also want to improve things like strength and birth rates at the cost of lifespan. The only issue was that it'll take time to build up enough credit to trade for the Wishes needed.

The second project was a portal network. It was something I had thought about before, but never really needed. The first part was almost standard, creating a number of portals and connecting them all together. That part I already knew how to do. The second part was by far the most difficult. Create a one-way portal that opens where you want it.

Sadly the best I could get was to have it target preset beacons. The beacons themselves were powerful single use magic items too. Their expense combined with the fact that they have to physically be placed where the destination is and it should be reasonably secure.

I also build in additional flaws and restrictions. No sense needlessly tempting anyone. The beacon takes quite a bit of time to activate, which makes it useless for quick maneuvers. I also have it glow brightly and hum loudly so infiltration isn't viable. And of course all the portals only function for lizardfolk.

Now I just need to be able to place beacons in remote areas.

It was one of the few times I really regretted focusing so heavily on expanding. Not that my deal with Essylliss really left me with a choice. Hell, I chose this. But I still wish I had at least put together some adventuring groups now.

Although I suppose it's not too late to start now. I just need to avoid the church of Ibrandul since he was killed by Shar. And there is no way I'm about to say that out loud. Shar is way out of my league.

Sadly spawn, despite having enough of a soul to be used to create ghosts, are very similar to simulacrum. They have very little initiative, muted emotions of any and most importantly, cannot level up. Which means adventurers I send out will have to be free willed agents. A task made all the harder now that I can't just use mass sacrifices to power level people.

Still there are ways to gimmick the system and I have plenty of experience, having played 3rd edition for over a decade. Sadly my divination spells aren't as useful anymore. Things like feats and classes don't show up. Which means specific builds aren't very likely to be attainable.

They also aren't accurate. Studying, research and training has given me new options. Except DnD doesn't have retraining rules. And it wasn't like I was losing any of my previous abilities either. Which means this is more like White Wolf in some ways.

The thing I can control perfectly is equipment. Limited Wish is still able to alter what a bone naga knows, whether spells, skills or in this case proficiency in crafting. And since I have unlimited resources and hundreds of bone nagas just sitting around standing guard, I can create as many magic items as I need.

Actually. That's a bit disappointing. All that work arranging my wand factory and I never really needed it. I should have traded for that simulacrum spell years ago. That or Wished for it. So much time wasted.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Equipment also includes constructs. Which means I have a means of creating at least mid level adventurer equivalents. Even better they provide me a way of filtering them into normal society without it being traced back to me.

After all Mechanisburg is already becoming famous for it's constructs. They even have a temple of Gond already. Considering the city had only been known about for a few months, they must have moved immediately.

Not that the entire party will be constructs. Just the majority. And it will give me the chance to play with some of the more expensive constructs. And while it'll make them even more expensive, magic items will enhance their effectiveness. I can even curse the items to only function properly for a construct, which means they can't be destroyed, stolen or even looted easily.

For the leader I stuck with a nimblewight, albeit an advanced one. I already had the core three. It seems D'Artagnan will be the adventurous brother. Rings of invisibility and silence grants him a very good stealth. Enchanting his blades to +2 wounding, heart piercing and subtle means he'll be a decent rogue. And goggles of trapfinding means he'll be able to cover most of the major points of the role.

All that was on top of the standard set of what I considered basic equipment. Cloak of resistance, ring of protection and bracers of armor. In fact I decided to make sure the entire group was similarly outfitted along with boots of springing and striding, except adding thirty feet to speed instead of just ten.

In comparison his 'partner' was much easier. An advanced slaughterstone eviscerator that serves as a mount and melee damage dealer. Horseshoes enchanted with zephyr and spiderclimb on top of speed takes care of mobility. Upgrading it's swords from +2 to +3 balanced and speed means it can deal an enormous amount of damage.

For range I create an advanced battle horror. Fortunately my experience with binding demons comes in handy and I'm able to use an arrow demon instead of something more generic. The improved dexterity and four arms turns it into a decent archer.

At least that knowledge is doing me some good. It's irritating that I didn't think to create arrow demon based doomguards until it's too late. It seems the three hundred odd anvils of darkness I'd made during the Time of Troubles are going to be the last.

I arm the battle horror with +3 speed and splitting longbows. It's also equipped with an Improved Quiver of Anariel that produces +5 arrows with a triblade made of adamantine, cold iron and alchemical silver. Combined with it's natural ability to enchant weapons, which was set to all four energy types, it made a very powerful ranged fighter.

As a poor mans monk I included a runic guardian. I could imbue it with a few spells and chose Shield, Bull's Strength, Fireball and finally Kiss of the Vampire. I also gave an amulet of mighty fists enchanted with +3 speed and enervation.

Of course a runic guardian needs a master. So I also have it an armored handy haversack and used it to carry it's master. I placed a permanent reduce person on a bone naga and had it ride in the top compartment. Being carried, it'll be easy to protect and having four spellcasting turrets on it's back with make it terrifying. And the guardian can even heal it since it has enervation.

The bone naga had a belt of armor combined with a glamour to look like a bronze hydra construct. It was also the very first of my naga spawn to have the tattoos that mimicked Rings of Wizardry. Eight of them. Two each for levels first through fourth.

The haversack had plenty of space. The main compartment also held a clockwork mender swarm and each of the side pockets held a flameskull with orders to protect the bone naga.

I intended to stop there. Maybe create a second party if I feel like creating different constructs. But then I had a volunteer. One of the clerics who felt it would be a travesty to not be part of such a group. Looks like I even have a healer.

Now to just figure out where to send them first.


	19. Under Siege

Chapter 19 Under Siege

I flicked my hand and a cloud of floating metal disks tore into the creatures chasing me. Their razor sharp edges along with their rapid spin easily slicing through flesh despite the scales protecting them. A storm of arrows flew through the cloud into the horde beyond, preventing it from being simply buried.

I guess it was a good thing I hadn't quite finished fine tuning my mechanical adventuring band yet. The shredstorm still wasn't nearly as powerful as I wanted, but it really was working well with the battle horror.

Behind me I can hear screams as D'Artagnan with his eviscerator chopped up the invaders from that side. They didn't even seem to need the two clockwork mender swarms I had stored in the eviscerator's saddlebags.

At least they left me at least partial remains I can try to identify. The third passage was positively filled with energy effects. Between the glare from the Wall of Fire and the vision blocking from the various fog spells I couldn't see anything.

The attack had happened suddenly. I had been working on a few ideas while very slowly shifting everything over to Mon Calamari. I heard screaming coming from several areas and using a crystal ball tapped into my scrying network.

Ever since Jursa I hadn't completely trusted my siblings. When I had set up my scrying network I had extended it into my own bases just in case. While the others could use the network, the bone nagas had instructions to only reveal parts of my set up. Which was paying off now.

The creatures seemed vaguely familiar and it was with shock that I recognized them. Spawn of Tiamat. Twisted creatures born from dragon eggs to be used as cannon fodder.

Sadly that's about all I know about them. I never did like using them. They were published too late and felt too much like a rip off of Dragonlance. A fact I was now regretting.

I kept scanning the area and was glad to see the attack was dying down, most of the invaders having been killed. However I can't say that I won. Most of my siblings here were dead. The survivors were all clerics who all held a symbol of Tiamat.

How the hell did this happen?

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Isiros flinched as yet another trap activated and the gory remains of the Tiamat spawn showered the area. She had always admired Adahk, but even she had never anticipated just how thorough his base defenses would be.

Based on the sheer number of them, he must have been layering traps into the complex for years. It was unnerving to realize how long she'd been living inside a deathtrap. She huddled a little lower just in case. She had already lost a sister to one of the traps.

Apparently Adahsk could remotely alter the settings on the things. Halfway through the attack the traps had suddenly started targeting them as well. In fact the room they had been inside had exploded. Then filled with acid. Which was boiling. And very conductive.

She had been the only survivor out of that group. All her children perishing without even a chance to escape. Only the numerous contingencies layered over the years kept her alive. It was ironic something Adahsk had devised for her was saving her now.

It really was regrettable.

Still, this entire situation was his fault in the first place. After all if he hadn't started turning them into half-dragons they never would have drawn Tiamat's attention. And of course she would take the opportunity to eat a demigod and gain the loyalty of a new race.

So really Adahsk had no one to blame but himself. Isiros nodded to herself as firmly as possible as she went over her argument. Not that she'd say anything. She had caught a glimpse of him through a counter scry and he had looked furious.

It was too bad Tiamat wasn't willing to even try to convert him. It was hardly Adahsk's fault he was a chosen. He wasn't even religious. After all she had never seen him pray and he ignored the altars they had built. She's such a petty goddess. As amazing as her big brother is, he's not really competition for an actual deity.

It can't be helped though. Their new goddess commands and Isiros is bound to obey. Still, Isiros spares a moment to feel pity for the newest generation. Already made fatherless and from what she's overheard more than likely to be used as cannon fodder. Just another slave race whose only purpose was to serve true dragons.

Isiros had hoped to be given a minor position. Someplace quiet she can keep her head down and away from the paladins. Sadly, it looks doubtful right now.

She had been given one task. Kill Adahsk. And now the survivors are all gathering together to try to figure out what to do next. Without an army no one had any hope of facing Adahsk. He had killed dragons in single combat. Even the thought of doing something similar was terrifying.

It wasn't even like they could flee. Where would they go? Adahsk had conquered every swamp nearby. Even creating more.

Jursa. She has a swamp of her own. Maybe she'll shelter them? Silvanus doesn't sound too bad in comparison to a goddess who sends them on suicide missions.

From the reports Adahsk had quite a few constructs stashed in the base. They were now steadily clearing out the complex. Relentlessly hunting down everyone.

The sounds of combat draw her attention and she looks back in disbelief to see a wave of turtles. Except they were made from stone and had glowing eyes. They were strong and as durable as expected from something made of stone. And while not intelligent, the wave of creatures tore into their rearguard.

What the hell had Adahsk been up to? She knew he was paranoid and working on additional defenses. It had been comforting. Now she wishes he had been lazier.

Even though she knows it's useless Isiros starts praying to Tiamat. Trapped between massive stone constructs and a horde of skeletons, it's the only thing she can think of. And as the only first generation cleric left she feels like she needs to do something.

Isiros is still praying when her brother appears. The sight of his massive form, drenched in blood and casually strolling towards her causes her to freeze in terror. She didn't want to die. Not like this.

She was so focused on Adahsk that she almost missed the massive impact that shook the base. It was only the dust from the ceiling that snapped her out of her shock. Terrified, she scrambled backwards, trying to get away, but too scared to look away.

The ceiling exploding caught everyone by surprise. A massive gout of fire washing over Adahsk and filling the hallway. For a moment she thought it was over, but as the flames died she almost collapsed.

Safe.

That had been way too close. She really doesn't want to be fighting again any time soon.

As the smoke cleared a figure became visible. Humanoid, but large and standing right where Adahsk had been.

That's impossible! The fire melted the stones. Even now puddles of newly formed lava dripped from the hole in roof. Then it took a step forward.

Isiros sobbed in relief as a pair of massive jaws lunged down and swallowed her brother whole. She felt a bit guilty being so happy at the death of sibling, but that had been far too close.

She was picking herself up when the scream hit her. A virtual wall of sound that made her curl up in a ball. It seemed to go on forever.

The scream abruptly was cut off and was followed by a thud that shook the floor. Isiros opened her eyes in disbelief to see a small river of blood pouring down the hole.

No. She can think of only one creature large enough to produce that much blood. The dragon.

A tearing sound.

And finally a figure dropped down to stand in front of her.

Adahsk was back. He was hurt, but even as she stared the ash was flaking off and new scales were growing in. In each hand he was clutching an odd weapon. Metal hoops with two foot blades mounted on them. Like the shurikens he had made once, but much much larger.

When he started walking, Isiros didn't try to retreat. What was the point? Fighting just seemed to make him stronger. She never should have turned against him.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Dropping the remain of my sister I decide I'm beyond angry. I'm furious. Traitors. My own family turning against me. And for what? The false promises of a delusional goddess. Pathetic.

Still, the death of Essyllis did hurt me. Without a greater power backing me the lizardfolk will never unite under me. Even worse is the fact that I'm still considered a Chosen. I know I'm not, but apparently other deities don't. Which means I'm going to be hunted for the divine spark I don't even have!

Looks like I'm going to be able to empathize with the bhaalspawn a lot more than I realized. Something I had desperately wanted to avoid.

Enraged I go through my base and destroy every shrine, altar and holy symbol I can find. Including most my rechargeable staves. Most of them are bound so that only a worshiper of Essylliss can use them. Now that Tiamat ate him I assume they now do the same for her. No way am I going to let her profit from my hard work. Or leaving a means of spying on me.

Which reminds me. I summon my crystal ball and tap into my scrying network.

Visions flood in. Tiamat didn't send a dragon, she sent three. The other two, a blue and black, are attacking Dromund Kaas. If I wait too long they'd destroy everything.

Grabbing my lance I momentarily freeze in shock. Essylliss really had died. My once divine weapon no longer has an aura or even carries a holy symbol. Instead there is a scorch mark.

It hadn't really registered before. Probably still hasn't. I shake my head to clear it. I need to act now.

The lance still works perfectly. I can feel it's powers and it responds perfectly. I teleport and see the dragons below me. I take a few precious seconds to prepare. They're busy having fun flattening everything. Bastards.

I dive two hundred feet into the back of the first dragon. Blue. They both detect me, but not fast enough to avoid my charge. And sniper's eye lets me aim for the weak spot at the base of the skull. It dies with the lance buried deep.

Already hasted I gesture and empty my Simbul's Spell Trigger. Four empowered scorching rays tear into the black dragon's side. Seeing it reeling, but still alive I also trigger my lightning ring. The dragon doesn't manage to dodge the two bolts of lightning. Down he goes.

I look around but the area is clear. Once more I summon my crystal ball. Nothing. It seems the rest of the attackers are dead or gone.

Damage is smaller in scope than I feared. Likely due to the fact that I had compartmentalized everything, only two places were attacked. It doesn't make the all but total destruction of one of my bases hurt any less.

The blue dragon had demolished my defenses. A weakness of relying too heavily on a theme, there's always something immune. Over half my bone trees were destroyed along with their guardians.

Everyone there was been killed, abducted or was an enemy. And it wasn't just Tiamat. One of the scrying spells had caught Jursa with the invaders. Apparently she really wanted some of Essylliss's children.

Which is bad since the sheer number of clerics I had been raising means both churches now have a significant power boost. It also give them control over a substantial portion of my race.

I wonder just how long ago Tiamat ate Essylliss. After all an alliance isn't usually born overnight. It also didn't escape me that the reports mentioned the shocker lizards working with the invaders. The fact that they were larger and had a third horn on their snout meant they had been altered.

They had done a lot of damage, even more than the blue dragon. They had tied up the skeleton troops, assassinated bone nagas, as well as pointed out bone trees to invaders. How long has everyone been plotting against me?

It really drives home the fact that I can't trust anyone. Not even my own memories of canon. Essylliss, a literal god who survived through fifth originally, is now dead. The one being I had counted on gone and now I have an entire church as a dedicated enemy.

Two if I include the church of Lathander. The Order of the Aster will make any moves I make much more difficult. And Jursa and her patron deity Silvanus makes three. That's a lot of churches to be arrayed against me.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It was when I was taking stock of the damage that I discovered something that made me furious. Inside the vault in Dromund Kaas I found the corpse of a half-gold dragon aurumvorax. The enchanted frame that kept it alive and endlessly regenerating laying broken.

It was a move meant to cripple me. I can rebuild, but I can't replace the artifact frame. Maybe not even the creature.

That single loss should have ended my endless supply of gold, scroll skins and other reagents. At least it would according to what Tiamat and Silvanus knows. That wasn't the only resource base they tried to cripple.

The fact that they tried to destroy my sword spider and gem scarab ranches as well was only to be expected after that. At least there I had scattered them between way too many different rooms for them to destroy everything. Ironically the fact I had posted guards and traps because of how dangerous the creatures were also saves many of them.

At least they ignored the normal animal breeding pens. I assume they figured they were useless since I had been using them for food. I really dodged a bullet by not bothering to show off my stone beast spell to my siblings.

If they had realized how widespread my use of deepspawn truly was I'm sure they would have destroyed the aurumvorax's body too. As it was, all they did was cause a temporary hole in my finances for the next few months. After that I'll have a number of deepspawn creating more for my use.

In fact I can even increase my resource base while I'm at it by using aurumvorax subspecies. After all they don't only come in gold. I know at last silver is one variation and I bet there are others. Eventually I'll come out even stronger than before.

Even my temporary losses can be mitigated by increasing the volume of trade the Eldar engage in. Who knew a project designed to keep from being bored would prove so useful. I suppose it really does pay to always have back ups.

I suppose, in a way, I should feel flattered. Attempting to cripple my finances showed how dangerous my attackers they considered me. They had seriously considered the fact that I might despite everything. I was determined not to disappoint them.

It also drove me to check on my other bases.

Which are thankfully fine. Even though my siblings know about Umbarra, the fact that I hadn't opened it up for settlement seems to have kept it safe. Even if they had attacked I suppose my only real losses would be xvarts and rat skulls.

It was also nice to see Pyre Citadel was also fine. No one was supposed to know about it, but I needed the reassurance. Moscow likewise was untouched.

Even the swamp Jursa moved too, which I never got a name for, looked fine. Not that it'll stay that way. As soon as I'm feel secure again she's going to pay. She's already proven to be an enemy. Stupid, arrogant sister. She really should have known better. They all should have.

It was the Mere of Dead Men that showed the problem. It seems Tiamat really wanted a foothold along the coast. A small flight of black dragons had attempted to move in there.

It hadn't gone well for them. While they had easily destroyed the large buildings the defenders had ultimately killed them. Sure they were all but immune to poison and were immune to acid. But there isn't any defense against having your bones pulled out.

The bone striders were incredibly effective, especially when I got their reports on how the nagas teleported them around. And now I have the shredded remains of a family of black dragons along with a great deal of rebuilding. At least Mechanisburg is fine.

The fight also drew a lot of attention. There is no way I'm going to be able to hide my work there now. I suppose Komarr is going to have to open much earlier than planned.


	20. Regroup

Chapter 20 Regroup

The loss of the lizardfolk turned out not to be as total as I had first thought. It's hard to completely wipe out a population of over a thousand. Especially when you're trying to kidnap hundreds of children at the same time.

Additionally, my stunt with Herask meant I had even more lizardfolk on the surface of Orlumbor. Some of whom fled, others attacked and still others ran in circles. It made the situation much more chaotic. Given how I benefited from it, I even slightly regretted their loss.

While they did get every child of Essylliss, quite a few of the normal lizardfolk hadn't been taken. Even some of the second generation, particularly those trained by Thriz, had managed to survive. Holing up in well defended rooms.

All in all I still had several hundred lizardfolk and even more eggs. Seeing just how many eggs survived makes me wonder if it was some kind of conciliatory gesture. Or if they just didn't consider them worth taking.

Not that it matters. While I can't reach the Order of the Aster or the cult of Tiamat, Jursa is much easier to find. After all she's currently living inside the swamp I created.

I don't hold back. I'm going to bury her and her followers under a tidal wave of metal.

I had been stockpiling marilith doomguards for years by this point. Thousands of Anvils of Darkness, each manned by undead to continuously produce constructs. My production had climbed to a full squad of twenty every day. After all I intended to use them against the Tuigan horde.

Even if Jursa does manage to defeat twenty thousand doomguards, her victory will be Pyrrhic. The swamp will choke under all that metal. That much iron will poison the entire landscape.

It was giving away one of my trump cards, but it was worth it. I wanted to use something completely unnatural to destroy Jursa and undead would cause me too many problems.

The actual assault was almost anticlimactic. I'm not sure if Jursa just didn't expect me to retaliate so soon or thought I was dead, but she hadn't even tried to hide. And a large sprawling lizardfolk city wasn't hard to find.

My construct warband, who I can decided to call the Warforged, led the way. I teleported them into the heart of the city, where they defended the gate I opened. From there a river of doomguards poured out. At the same time I had bone nagas teleporting smaller groups of doomguards to the edges of the city.

The settlement in an effort to blend into nature, didn't have walls or even much in the way of defenses. Watch towers did nothing to slow down an army of constructs. After all I wasn't trying to sneak in.

The druids and clerics tried, but so much of their magic dealt with living beings. My army easily ignored things like swarms of stinging insects and poisonous thorns. And after the first few plants ambushed them, they started uprooting and killing every plant they came across.

The settlement was destroyed within an hour. The defenders relentlessly swamped over and butchered. As the doomguards spread out to hunt down anyone who wasn't in the city I started burning the ruins. Then I put it out by opening a gate from the sea, salting the scorched earth.

Jursa wanted this place to become a nature refuge? Any follower of Silvanus who visits now will only find desolation.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

In many ways Tiamats timing was both a blessing and curse. The curse was obvious. Losing the lizardfolk and even my shocker lizards was a serious blow. It left me scrambling to secure myself against my enemies. Even if I killed Jursa I hadn't missed the paladins probing the edges of Dromund Kaas and Komarr.

It also came too late for me to create Anvils of Darkness based off other demons. If she had to attack, couldn't it have been before the Time of Troubles? Without the lizardfolk as a focus I would have created a huge variety of different doomguards.

The blessing was a much more subtle thing. Rather than a tangible benefit it was a wake up call. I had gotten complacent. Confident that I was safe in my plans, that my patron was going to survive, that everything was fixed.

The attack had made me realize how mutable the future was. My existence has changed everything. And if I wanted to survive I needed to be a paranoid as possible. Which meant I needed to expand and fast. Back ups. Contingencies. More trump cards.

I ignore the Skullfire Legion. They were doing fine, but in many ways were also my least dependable asset. After all they worship Mephistopheles, which means their ultimate allegiance isn't to me. They don't even make decent undead since their Disciple powers aren't retained.

While I can't exactly count on them, they are still worth keeping around. After all they are mass breeding animals. Which is providing me with skulls. Not exactly unique, but it was better than nothing. And it wasn't like they're in a position to threaten me.

Mechanisburg on the other hand is just about perfect. Not only does it provide me with skulls, but it's also already making a name for itself for all the constructs that it uses. Even better Koger has finally made a breakthrough, managing to merge his automatons, which already uses elements of the stone beasts, with the process of creating doomguards.

The resulting creature is perfect for rounding out his forces. It's completely reliable and even slightly intelligent, although less so than even a doomguard. However the best part was it's attacks. From the elbows down, each arm was replaced with a large metal tube over a foot wide and three long. The left was bronze and can emit a cone of sound that strikes everything within thirty feet with the force of a greatclub.

The left is silver and fires a burst of electricity that acts like scorching ray, although all three targets must be within thirty feet of each other. It was a masterful combination of normal enchanting, grell alchemy and draconic lore.

The Stormguards are wonderful creations. Not only does it have an area of effect attack it even has blindsight, which makes them superb guards. With the only downside being their moderately high cost. Normally I couldn't care less, but I'm a bit strapped for funds currently.

I still plan to give Koger the remaining three hundred or so anvils of darkness. After all Stormguards are much more dangerous than normal doomguards. And it wasn't like there was a rush. After all it would likely be years before there were enough of them to make a decent army. And I still had my marilith doomguard legions.

The Eldar were the last group and the one that needed the least adjustment. I already had plans to expand their influence and their forces are made of a versatile mix of constructs and undead. Still, since I can afford it, I increase how many deepspawn they have. The ranks of their Wind Riders will soon seem endless.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

My new found drive wouldn't let me stop with just shoring up my existing groups. After all I needed more that just constructs and undead. I needed living creatures too. The issue was in keeping control of them.

I also have the current drawback of being mostly broke. So anything I set up will have to function with a minimum of resources. Which means I can't get too fancy. Although at least I can use bone nagas. Even if it has to be very discrete to keep people from connecting it me.

The first group I chose was the Xvarts. Umbarra was already rapidly filling up with them. I had underestimated just how fast their population can grow. Which makes sense once I interrogated a few and realized they always give birth to twins and can give birth twice a year. They were practically out breeding the dire rats!

The drawback of using Xvarts is that they're virtually useless. Small, undisciplined, and lacking any distinctive advantage other than their breeding rate. Which is why I made them all woodlings.

Sadly the other templates I know of aren't viable for various reasons. Greenbound since they don't breed, half-dragon because of Tiamat, and the others since I want them to remain small sized. After all they can't ride the larger dire rats into battle if they get any bigger.

Since they don't really have anything approaching a stable society it falls upon me to give them one. I base it on what I remember from the Aztecs, but with elements from the native americans. Mock wars would be wages between tribes in order to take prisoners.

It even makes sense for their stats. Even with just the leather armor and small wooden shields they tend to use, added to the huge natural armor bonus from woodling, their armor class was absurd. Its far easier for them to use nets and bolos to fight each other.

Not that they don't fight with more lethal weapons. However it's usually confined to within the tribe in the form of duels. After all, with their high birth rate, they can afford the odd death when settling disputes.

To actually create the system I had to plant another bone naga in each black grove. This one kitted out with several enchantment spells. Condition them from birth and it should only take a few generations for me to see real results.

Aside from providing them with plenty of combat experience, there is another reason I'm setting up the xvarts this way. The prisoners are going to be sacrificed in an annual ritual. Not a real ritual either. Just a way for me to sell the souls to hell in return for more credit. After all they've been very useful.

I'll 'pay' the xvarts in alcohol and drugs for the rituals. With basic needs taken care of, vices are a much better reward than anything else. It also means only the larger successful settlements will be able to indulge, providing a reason to grow their numbers and train.

Also as part of the yearly sacrifice there will be a tournament. A series of duels to determine the greatest warrior. Winning of course brings more rewards. Ambitious and vices will eventually end up generating at least some high level warriors I can then copy for more dread warriors. Which I can use to lead the rest into battle if I ever need living cannon fodder.

I need them to focus on expanding and sacrificing. I need those souls for barter. I need them because the devils just so happened to decide to be friendly and give me a free piece of information. The pyrohydra I had bought, that I had bound and given to the hobgoblins to harvest, used to be the mount of a slaad lord.

A damned slaad lord. Something on par with a demigod in terms of sheer power. Epic level definitely. Which means I need things that can be used against something on that level. Granted the xvarts are never going to be useful against something epic level, but the wishes I buy with their souls might get me something that is.

The devils knew how I'd react too. Scrambling to build up even faster and further. More dependent on them for shortcuts. I knew they manipulated me, but it didn't change the fact that it was working. The danger was real. Ignoring it now would just be stupid and likely end up with me dead.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It was actually thoughts of the slaad the provided me with the inspiration for my next group. Which I couldn't afford to fully develop. But that doesn't mean I can't get started on the rest of the group.

Grippli are perhaps the easiest group I've taken over. No sooner had I teleported in then they immediately surrendered. I didn't even have time to greet them.

Of course I accepted. Then I started questioning them. After all I needed to know how reliable they are. The answers were pretty sad.

I already knew grippli are small, but the fact that their skin means they can't wear armor combined with their very low birth rate, they were almost extinct. One child a century was not nearly fast enough to replenish their ranks. Not when they're viewed as a food source by so many things.

The tribe I found in the Wetwoods was the last of them as far as they could tell. And they numbered less than two hundred. They had been dreading and expecting something to show up and destroy them for decades now. They had surrendered in hopes of surviving longer.

It was a pitiful existence. Living without hope for a future. Scared of everything. Even as evil as I was, I felt bad for them. After all, even my cannon fodder lived better lives. What was the point of ruling them otherwise? Wiping out your own subjects was just wasteful.

It was a nice change taking over the grippli tribe. Nostalgic if it's possible to feel that way for a time only a few months past. Although if I do encounter more, they may not recognize mine.

I apply two templates to the grippli. The first was woodling since their lack of armor was a crippling weakness. I didn't intend to use them as soldiers, but I also didn't want them to be so fragile. A nest of giant spiders should not be considered an extinction level event!

The second template was both to help them survive and aid them in one of the roles I did see them playing for my forces. The chameleon template will greatly improve their already impressive ability to hide. With some work they should make at least semi-decent scouts and assassins.

It didn't take much to carve a series of large caves for them. Damp and quickly filled with moss, it made an ideal setup for a giant cricket farm. And it was even easier to install a myconid colony in the deeper ones. Who would be able to provide plenty of poisons, which what I had decided was going to be the focus of this group.

It wasn't hard to make a few more caves to raise the necessary plants. Black lotus and several other poisonous plants naturally grow in swamps. And of course not just plants provided poison and could be farmed. Carrion crawlers, watch spiders and giant wasps were also raised.

Watch spiders also were useful as guards and for silk. Which inspired me to track down and get the grippli a number of buckler beetles.

Finally a few special creatures were heavily bound in curses and placed in an isolated cave for milking. They were too dangerous to keep a population of, but too useful to ignore. I started them off with only a neogi, grell and even a greater flame snake. Although there was plenty of room to add more later.

Oddly when I started working on their numbers a number's disparity became apparent. I assume the Godswar changed them since the shaman was over six hundred years old, but the slaves I polymorphed have a maximum lifespan of two hundred. It's a minor thing, but reminds me yet again that I can't rely on any single thing.

Not that it really matters. All I really needed was to reverse the growth template on a few of the dire toads being raised. Then I took a bunch of the eggs, waited until they hatched and used polymorph other to turn them into baby grippli. Toads are in the animal kingdom, amphibians, the same size as grippli. Close enough that the spell is permanent.

The tribe was overjoyed at all the new infants I gave them. I wonder if they'll credit me with their shorter lifespan and faster reproductive cycle as well.

Grippli, even with two templates, still aren't enough to create an army that I can use. And I also want them to be able to use more than just poison for defense. I needed to diversify.

Which is why I was also busy setting up several tribes of bullywugs along the borders of the Wetwoods. It's not hard either. I chose bullywugs for the reverence they showed froghemoths. As animals all it took was a single mindrape spell in order to completely tame one.

Then with the information I gained from it's mind it wasn't hard to devise a training method for more froghemoths. Bullywugs, seeing their 'gods' so obedient, followed their example. Add in renewable food sources and I had everything I needed.

As a 'blessing' for being so cooperative I turned them into half-ogres. Size and strength are key factors in bullywug society. The large increase to both turned them into fanatics. And just like that I have incredibly aggressive, and more importantly, powerful border guards.

The final thing I do is dub my newest base Felucia.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Minotaur blood had a very similar effect as ogre blood. And even better, it provided an innate memory-based spatial awareness. Which makes it perfect for grimlocks. Even better, it's effects stacked with those from ogre's blood, although so did the intelligence penalties. Although as long as I had something else controlling them it shouldn't be a problem.

Which brought me to the medusa. Intelligent, poisonous and with a power that can potentially effect even epic level enemies.

The best thing about medusa is how easy they are to control. Something I thankfully remembered how to do. It was based off something I had done once in a game, back when I had plenty of completely accurate, if sometimes vague, reference materials.

Medusa have a need to reproduce. It's one of their most basic drives, although thankfully it's not as frequent as hunger or thirst. And despite the fact that they can only birth human children with one, they all seem to want a Maedar mate.

It's not just that they can relax around one either, it's instinctive. And normally Maedar are loyal dedicated mates. The setup I had used before was an exception. I think I had him corrupted with demon blood or something, but for whatever the reason he built a harem. A harem filled with jealous, violent medusae whom he pointed towards his enemies.

Using divination I found it wasn't magical in nature. It seemed to be something rooted into the medusae's biology. Which is odd for a race that I'm fairly certain is artificial, but very useful. So to control my group I created my own maedar.

It wasn't a true maedar. But then I didn't need to be either. I use one of my remaining human slaves as the base, choosing one that was particularly charismatic and had mastered a double weapon, in this case a quarterstaff. Sadly I couldn't afford to enchant each end higher than a mere +1 defending. Nor could I tattoo him to be immune to poison and petrification.

Thankfully I could get around most of those issues with a bone naga. Switch out several of it's spells for combat boosts and other support spells and he'll be safe enough for now. Giving him my only blackstone gigant might have been overkill though.

Once he's safe I focus on stability. I use a wish spell to turn him into an elf and then another into a half-nymph. It just felt right to give him a sight triggered power since he was going to be leading medusa. And I can't really have him dying after only a few years.

Some last minute coaching on diplomacy and a few other skills he'll need and I'm done. It feels weird using such an unenhanced being as a spawn, but there was no way I was going to risk him dying and having to start over.

Thankfully all the species I want to include are easy enough to find. I plan to have a feudal setup, with a maedar king initially. His role will be basically administrative as well as reproductive. Greater medusa will be under him as nobles and more directly control the territory. Each of them will have their own tribe of grimlocks serving them.

Being born blind, sight based powers are beyond comprehension for most grimlocks and the half-minotaur ones are even simpler. In fact part of the reason I chose them was they usually worship medusa. Which means my kingdom will have fanatically soldiers.

However greater medusa are a rarish mutation, accounting for less than ten percent of those born. Which means there will be a number of normal medusa. They will form the royal guard and harem. Entry will be through combat, allowing the winners of tournaments and duels to challenge existing members. I also plan to do the same for the greater medusa, which will keep the nobles from being lazy.

With the framework finished I just needed to flesh them out. Raising basilisks and cockatrices as guard dogs and war beasts means there will be three ways to petrify enemies. Sadly gorgons are incredibly territorial and aggressive. Still, three out of the basic four petrifying creatures is pretty good.

Each stronghold also had a number of medusa watchghosts as protectors. And finally I placed a bone naga as a caretaker. It uses Disguise Self to appear like a very old medusa. The fact that it appears like it can cast a spell from each hand and eye should give it enough authority to smooth out the creation process of the kingdom.

Of course a few 'ancient priestesses' can't really defend a kingdom and I know better than to rely exclusively on petrification. Like in Felucia, I plan on having multiple means of defending themselves. The focus I chose is strength damage. It seemed fitting since medusa venom already does so and I don't want to pick poison again.

Towards that end I start setting up underground breeding farms. Not just for the cockatrices and basilisks, but also for ropers and shadow asps. Like basilisks, ropers can be trained and used as guards. And shadow asp venom can create shadows, which also deals strength damage.

I set up this area in what is informally called the Tunlands. Although I rename it Utapau. The area reminded me of the landscape from the movie. Just on a very different scale.

I took a distinct pleasure in setting it up there. The humidity, natural borders and competition made it perfect. And it was nice to have a base in another part of the world. Clearing out the family of black dragons that already lived there was just a bonus.

The final addition to Utapau's defenses are manticores. Cursed to lower their intelligence to that of an animal, after training they can be ridden into battle. And spawned versions are fairly docile. Between the nearby mountains and the eventual return of the Shadovar, Utapau needed an airforce.

The best part was that the setup made it very easy to expand. Want more territory? Let the numbers build up a bit and send in another maedar. Right now they only control a small portion of the land, but eventually I plan for the kingdom to encompass the entire Tunlands.

Since neither the medusa or grimlocks liked swamps, I have the bone nagas building a series of canals to fix that issue. After all the entire area used to be a lake. It's been steadily shrinking for decades. The canals will just speed up the process.

Now all that's needed is to expand fast enough to secure the borders before Cormyr else tries to crush them. After all they consider the area part of their country. Just not one currently inhabited. Although considering their lack of success in the Stone Lands and Azoun's semi-recent death I'm confident that won't be a problem.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

My last settlement was to actually go back and recolonize the swamp at the Winding River. I had kept an eye on the place and it was still largely uninhabited save for the large number of trolls. Well, that and a black dragon. Which may have factored in. A bit.

Besides, I needed somewhere to move the lizardfolk. I just didn't feel safe around them anymore. After all I no longer had their deity backing me. So off to Dagobah it is. I don't remember or care what Jursa had called it. It's mine now so I get to name it.

Out of everything the Sivs were one of the ones I trusted the most. They had consistently proven almost fanatically loyal to me. I even considered keep the Sivs at Mon Calamari, but their powers really work best in a swamp.

So now the Sivs rule Dagobah and the lizardfolk. I organize the entire place like a cross between a military camp and monastary. The Siv monks will train and provide for the lizardfolks. Who will in turn become dedicated soldiers. And eventually a mercenary company that can hopefully ally with the Flaming Fists. Not only will it prevent Baldur's Gate from overreacting, an alliance with a large human city will do more than guards to protect Dagobah.

I can even offer Baldur's Gate a tangible benefit. Owlbears aren't difficult to breed. At least as long as you can use a deepspawn to cheat. And while they will be useful as war beasts, they're even more useful by breeding and selling the eggs. Military alliances are nice, but noting cements friendship like profit.

Seeing how I was already setting up areas for owlbears it only seemed right to also raise dungeon bred dire bears. I also felt a bit like kicking myself. After all I had unlimited deepspawn. Why was I bothering to raise animals the normal way?

Sure for somethings, like wolves since the pelt was sold intact. But for things like boar which was completely processed? And took a lot of work to arrange food for? So much wasted effort.

Although I guess that means I still do need to raise bears normally. At least if I want to sell the pelts. At least I can now set up a way to harvest dungeon bred deinonychus skulls. I had been going crazy trying to think of a place large enough raise them.

The insight also helps me with my plans for outfitting my lizardfolk. I had saved the giant black dragon ant I had previously provided. So they'll still be able to make all the acidic weapons they want. And for armor I kidnap the blacksmith in Beregost. He wasn't hard to find. I've certainly visited the city enough times in the game.

Then I grab an ankheg and turn it into a half-black dragon and feed it to a deepspawn. With a constant source of chitin that looks like it's been etched to resemble scales and gleaming a glossy black I can really make my mercenaries stand out. Ankheg plate mail and large shields can both be made from the shells. And the mandibles can be used to make even more weapons.

And since they are woodlings i add something to offset their weakness to fire. Dragonhide mantles made from half-red dragon giant striders. Who like the ants, can be harvested over and over. All I need to do is hit it with a fireball for it to instantly regrow it's entire hide.

The lizardfolk, under the Siv's lawful tendencies, will end up completely organized. I plan on calling them the Ebondeath Company. I had already checked with legend lore and while the name was used the dracolich had disappeared during the Godswar. Going by what I remember, I'm fairly certain Myrkul's crown ate him.

The Ebondeath Company will both protect the borders of Dagobah as well as provide a competing source for lizardfolk mercenaries. Except mine will refuse any new contracts until they finish their current one. I want them to have a reputation for being as reliable as they are effective.

The fact that their existence will essentially be a taunt towards other dragons makes me happy, but also paranoid. No amount of Sivs and lizardfolk will be able to face a fully grown dragon. Not without tremendous losses.

My ace was something that I usually loath. At least on a personal scale. Consumable magic items. Specifically magical ammunition.

I took the concept of the spider nest bullet and modified it. So I could live with myself I ended up researching a variation of Shelantha's Delicate Disk. Shelantha's Delicate Orb only conjures a two inch sphere, which makes it much easier to transport. It is also only a fifth level spell. In return it can only hold up to a third level spell, which is a perfectly valid trade off for me.

I then researched a second spell. Nothing spectacular, only third level, called Stirge Swarm. And like the same says it summons 2d4 stirges.

The idea was simple. The orb is mounted on the end of an arrow, it strikes the dragon, only needing a touch attack. Break. Summon stirges. The stirges land, also only needing a touch attack, and drain blood.

The swarm is made of 2d4 members, which averages to 5. Stirges drink 4 points before stopping. 20 constitution is a lot. And if a dragon gets hit with an entire volley? Death in one round.

I even have the perfect test.

I disguise myself as an ambitious apprentice who got lucky with a divination spell. I use a few of Leomund's spells to build a small meeting spot out in the Greenfields. As long as I stay away from the two roads I have plenty of empty space to hide in.

I spread a few rumors and arrange a large meeting to arrange a hunting party for Klauth. I act very discrete, at least against non-magical spying. I pass out my address to anyone who seems interested.

Then I wait.

Sure enough, within hours of returning a massive red dragon teleports in. Delay teleport kicks in and all of my hidden skeleton archers pop out. I didn't really need them in Mon Calamari. So I brought them here. Might as well get as much use out of them as possible. A full dozen of them were equipped with my newly created Stirge Swarm Arrows.

Klauth ignored the arrows and bathed the entire area in fire. A few seconds later and I was the only thing in the entire clearing that hadn't been reduced to ash. Really glad I didn't use anything stronger. It would have just been a waste. After all he just reduced a magically reinforced house to ash.

I smile at him and I can see Klauth blink in surprise that I'm still fine. I even know what he's thinking. After all the character I'm playing shouldn't be powerful enough to cast Energy Immunity.

His eyes narrow and it looks like he's taken the bait. A rapidly burning piece of parchment, the remains of a spell scroll. Both of his wings twitch and a volley of spells erupts from each one.

I'm impressed. At least a bit. Despite my act fooling him Klauth came in hasted. He really is paranoid.

Too bad it doesn't matter. The spells all stop abruptly as my contingency kicks in and a Globe of Invulnerability springs up.

Huh. He still hasn't noticed the Stirges that have latch onto him. I guess he isn't paranoid enough.

It's a bit arrogant but I hold up my hand with my fingers raised. Then I count down. At least I intended to. Sadly I time it wrong and he drops halfway through my count. Oh well, not like anyone was watching. Not with a Screen up.

Hey! And it looks like just solved my money problem.


	21. Necropolis

Chapter 21 Necropolis

Klauth truly was a magnificent dragon. Stretching over two hundred feet long, I've never even heard of a dragon his size. His corpse slams into the ground hard enough to cause a small earthquake. I relax even as I stumble to gain my balance. And grin as I feel a familiar surge of power. Thank goodness that worked.

I vaguely remember using a circumstantial modifier for rewarding XP, but I hadn't been sure if that was me or from the rules. If this hadn't worked I may very well not have been able to level ever again. I just killed an epic tier opponent only using the equivalent resources of a level 13 wizard. Only Energy Immunity was high level and that could easily have been done with a scroll.

I push the energy, but it doesn't seem to respond. Instead it seems to be spreading. Trickling down and I suddenly start remembering my specialized training. It's as if new insights and even methods of thinking are being unlocked from a eureka moment.

Huh. That's different. At least I did get something. Besides this was only side benefit. The real reward is much more material. And while no doubt some people already know he's been killed I don't really care.

Harvesting his body isn't easy. A creature easily over colossal size was positively enormous. Thank goodness for gate and minions. I wait until the wings, with their wand harnesses, have been securely stored before leaving the rest to my minions.

Officially the illusion I set will trick anyone watching into believing the Warforged defeated Klauth in a titanic battle that sadly destroyed his wings. And anyone checking will find them guarding what's left of the body as it's processed by a small army of constructs.

In the meantime I move to secure Klauth's lair. I still remember Klauthen Vale because the name had sounded so egotistical and how often I had a player group die trying to get there. I can remember at least two campaigns ending that way and almost every group I ran tried at least once, if only after a campaign ended.

Klauthen Vale was so much less than I anticipated. A long narrow valley with steep walls and filled with various animals. A single large ledge had been worn smooth over time and at the very back was the entrance to a large cave. It split in two with one blocked by a massive boulder and the other merely being a shallow stone bowl that was obviously his bed.

Getting to Klauth's hoard wasn't difficult. One Earth Glide later and I was past the thoroughly unmagical rock. This place is a massive disappointment. I recall thinking the description was too bare and fleshing it out into a massive ancient temple filled with traps and guardians. Instead I get a camping stop.

At least his treasure is real. There are literally mountains of gold and other treasure. Although the most coveted item was likely Klauth's spellbook. A giant grimoire made from dragon skin. And it was sitting next to a chest filled with wands.

I can't help but grin as I flip through and find the Triptych spell. The ability to activate up to three wands at once is a massive advantage in magical combat. And I now have the only copy.

Well not for long if I have my way. After all the Simbul is one of my favorite characters. And she just so happened to be the rules of a country that is currently at war. I'm betting she'd love a new ally. Something to work towards once I'm feeling secure.

After all since I'm no longer working towards taking over the lizardfolk race, there isn't any need to remain in hiding. Especially since there's no point. With two gods as enemies I'm not going to be able to stay hidden long.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Not that I intend to hide. With the death of Klauth I now had the bodies of seven dragons, most of them huge or gargantuan and Klauth which is at least colossal. More importantly I now have Klauth's treasure and am no longer broke.

I gather several of my bone nagas together and start working on the bodies. Animating them is easy. Except I don't want simple skeletons. Dragons have an advantage over pretty much everything else when turned into a skeleton. They keep their energy immunity, blindsight and best of all, their frightful presence ability.

Dragon skeletons with their abilities and size have potential. And I intend to make the most of it. Besides, everyone fears dragons. Tapping into that only makes sense.

To further augment them I use a fell desecrate in conjunction with an altar to Velsharoon. I've played 3e for over a decade, I have by far the most experience with it. And it seems my need for revenge is making it easier to recall memories from my past life. I really wasn't the nicest of people.

I have each of the dragons animated by a bone naga so they can personally control it. Even with the boost from desecrate they only barely managed to animate Klauth.

Next I have armor crafted for each dragon made from their own scales. After all, it covered them before. There was no reason it wouldn't now. And I have plenty of materials to patch any gaps.

While the armor was being made I was having their wings rebuilt. Rather than just using the skin from before, I copied the bony fins that the wings of metallic dragons were made from. The fins didn't really make a difference in flying since it was all being done through enchantments. But they provided me with plenty of space to scribe permanent symbols.

I squeezed in as many Symbols as I could fit, which is quite a bit considering the smallest one had a wingspan of a hundred and fifty feet. Death, Fear, etc. In total nine types of Symbols, the standard eight along with Spell Loss. And except for Fear they were linked to phrases in draconic to activate.

Sadly the one feature I can't copy is a breath weapon. So I go in a different direction. I was already using the hollow interior to hold the bone naga. And while a Projected Image disguised as it's tongue is useful, I wanted more.

My first idea was to enchant the natural weapons. After all it will need enhancement to go through damage reduction. The invulnerability property grants damage reduction almost as good as a dragon's, but doesn't allow it to pierce any.

So +3. Flaming or the appropriate energy mostly for thematics. And Vicious and Wounding. After all with eight necrosis carnexes welded to the inside it's passive healing is over twice as fast as mine.

It wasn't any trouble to set up several partitions in the torso to hold a mass of flameskulls of the appropriate energy type. Now when the body flexed as if breathing a score of flameskulls will fly out. Double that for Klauth. It's not as initially overwhelming, but powerful enough that I'm happy enough with the results.

Admiring how effective my dragon flight is I decide I want more. However, actual dragons take forever to grow. I settle instead for something I found in Klauth's notes. The ritual to create a wyvern drake.

It seems Klauth had modified it to create one that empowers himself. The original though, infuses draconic essence into wyvern eggs to create a new species. A wyvern drake, like a normal wyvern, grow incredibly quickly, typically reaching full size within a couple of years. Only one if I use the aging curse.

I can even alchemically turn them into a half-dragon after they hatch although I have to use the same type I originally infused essence from. Using a different type results in it going insane and dying. Not even Mindrape could prevent it. True dragons really are incredible.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It turns out getting back at Tiamat is just as frustrating as targeting the church of Lathander. Although in a different way. Instead of being placed behind impregnable wards Tiamat doesn't have any open churches. In fact she isn't openly worshiped anywhere.

The most common followers of Tiamat are small cults centered around individual dragons. Which means, like the Cult of the Dragon, they're like rooting out terrorists. A pain in the ass.

Annoying, but it can't be helped. Still, with a flight of dragons I now feel ready to move more openly.

Of course I still wasn't going to do something as crazy as try and make myself an emperor or something. Not only would that just be making myself into a target, it'd take up all my free time. No, I'll continue like I have been, but just on a larger scale.

Well, after I secure Mon Calamari. I had planned on keeping it a complete secret. A final place to retreat too. With the attack I no longer had that option. I also no longer needed it to raise a population of lizardfolk.

So now what should I place here? At least I have time. My stunt with Herask will buy me some time and the dragon that attacked was also likely noticed.

In the end I decided to rename the island. While the whole sea theme had worked before I had several ideas that all involved undead which I had never worked on because they were a bit extreme. Now that sounds like a good thing. Necropolis would be where I produce my greatest necromantic creations.

My first creation is the Meat Wagon. Shamelessly based off the Warcraft unit, it's essentially a magical tank. Well maybe not a tank, but at least an armored wagon. Made of steel. And large spiked wheels.

So maybe a tank.

It was essentially a metal box fifteen feet long and ten feet wide and high. Covered in spikes. The interior was divided into two sections. The bottom contained bicycle petals attached to the wheels which were manned by half-dragon goblin skeletons.

The top section held two important things. First was the bone naga commander. It's spell list allowed it to repair or even replace the wagon if need be as well as cast a number of support spells. The other thing was a door to a Magnificent Mansion.

Inside the extradimensional mansion were a few things. The most common were the half-fang dragon trolls, all securely chained to the walls for harvesting. A few skeletons manned the crank equipment that essentially automated the process.

The heart of the operation was one of my favorite undead. A morgh. Just control one and you have an instant zombie apocalypse. It executed and animated each troll as they were reassembled. And the final inhabitant was a single zombie infested with rot grubs. As each zombie walked past it would reach out and touch it, infesting them in turn.

I added one my stone giant skeletons on top although I added another enchantment to him. It was the same one the Eldar had, which conjured ammunition. I probably should have done that from the beginning. And more for nostalgia than anything I created a illusion spell that creates a permanent image of a catapult.

One creation done I decided to experiment with something I hadn't gotten around to yet.

For almost anyone else necrocraft was practically a dead end. When I first figured out how to do so, cheating with what I recalled from the game, I was ecstatic. I was glad to find it was almost identical to the Pathfinder version. Or at least as far as I can tell.

It's a very versatile ability. Allowing for an enormous amount of customization. You can easily tailor make something for just about any role. The problem comes from the fact that it's exactly that.

Necrocraft sacrifices power for versatility. The bodies needed are generic. Higher quality undead or corpses makes no different. The only factor seems to be the number of undead. And more than limited improvements require exponentially more bodies.

Although I suppose for anyone not able to create custom creatures and then spawn copies, necrocraft is a reasonable choice.

Not that I'm going to not use it. After all, undead AT-ATs sound a lot more entertaining than rolling metal boxes. A bone naga is just powerful enough to create a gargantuan necrocraft. Turning it into a pure transport makes it easier to modify as well.

Let's see, add extra legs, and another pair. Make it primarily out of bone. Add armor, both bone and iron. Increase strength. Increase speed. Add trample. Hollow it out so I can actually use it as a transport.

Huh. Well, I guess an AT-TE is close enough. And it only costs me...a hundred and fifty skeletons. Damn, they are not cheap. I've never been happier they made that DnD cartoon. Getting that many onyxes would have been a pain otherwise.

Well at least until the gem scarab population recovers. I really love having a broken resource base.

Since I have room I also place eight stone giant skeletons on top. They each have a small wall that provides partial cover for them. And since I have so much space on the inside, I weld over a score of necrosis carnexes to the walls. Additionally I place a pair of bloodhulks inside enchanted with Shield Other.

Fourteen hit dice aren't that much when you have a target forty feet long and twenty feet wide. Even with the boost from desecrate that amounts to barely over two hundred hit points. Shield Other effectively doubles that though. And with all the necrosis carnexes, it has an incredibly high fast healing rate.

Additionally it has damage reduction and energy resistances from a very powerful amulet. After all with as much as I was already investing in it, what's a little more? Although the amulet is enchanted to teleport back if the necrocraft is ever destroyed.

I do the same with the giant horseshoes. Except they're enchanted for stability and speed. And the brooch further boosting it's strength. No point being wasteful.

It was only after seeing to complete that I decided to keep the Meat Wagons and AT-TEs separate. After all two types of powerful units lets me field more forces. Although it does mean I should find a different place to dedicate towards building them.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I realized that between my Meat Wagons and Sword Spider skeletons I had a decent start on the Scourge. I don't remember all the units, but I think I remember enough to go through my idea.

Ghouls are each enough. Just take a normal human and tattoo him heavily. All passive buffs too. Nothing fancy that requires real thinking. While ghouls aren't dumb, they lose all memories and don't care about much besides their hunger.

Defensive buffs include armor, natural armor, saves, damage reduction and energy resistances. Not enough to make them juggernaughts, but enough that they can challenge a mid-level adventurer. They also gained boosts to their speed, strength, dexterity and charisma for paralysis.

The last tattoo was a variation of mighty fists, enhancing all natural attacks with +3 and an improved version of vampiric that drains 1d6 hit points automatically. The vampiric property wasn't even difficult to create. After all Vampiric Touch doesn't allow a save.

Abominations were even more entertaining to set up. I tracked down an Athatch and it's perfect. I'm sad it's too big for a deepspawn to copy, but this is more for fun anyway. And at least they're tough enough I can copy a juvenile and just age afterwards.

I give it all the same tattoos as the ghoul besides the speed boost. After all abominations aren't very fast units. Instead it had a blinding strike enchantment. Although it's the weapons that are the main difference. A wish spell lets me replace each of it's three hands with weapon grafts made of dense bone.

The three weapons are all enchanted the same, as +2, wounding, marrowcrushing and weakening. Only the actual weapons differ. The left arm had a battleaxe, the right a morningstar and the third arm ended in a scythe.

The best part of grafting the weapons though was that it allowed me to turn them into hivenests. The scarab swarm covers the grafted weapons as naturally as it does the rest of it's body. Something they won't do with weapons that are just picked up.

I even managed to customize the wrappings when I turned it into a mummy. Now it looks like it's wearing a crudely stitched together leather skin quilt. I also permanently etch two symbols of weakness on the wrappings.

The last two units I remember are necromancers and bone wyrms. The necromancer was easy. Skull Lords are a type of undead that have the ability to create small numbers of other skeletal minions. Since they were assembled like necrocraft, I used the same method to enhance them. Keyed magic items that teleport back when the skull lord is destroyed. Including one that permanently places them under a Command Undead effect.

It was the bone wyrm I decided to have the most fun with. I already had the ritual to create wyvern drakes. So all I needed to do to create one was infuse a wyvern egg with white dragon essence, age it a bit and then tattoo it with every one of the standard buffs plus an enlarge person.

While I can't use Haste to age creatures anymore, it isn't hard to create a spell that does so as it's primary effect. In fact it makes the process much more survivable. Especially with a ring of sustenance.

The best part of the entire process is that I don't need to do anything fancy other than the aging. Deepspawn spit out copies of the hatchlings, I age them and once they reach a hundred feet long, kill them.

Then all I need to do is a simple Animate Dead. And I have a dragon zombie. Which is a normal zombie, except it keeps its breath weapon, even if it is at half strength, and several other abilities. To make up for that though I add a Symbol of Pain and Stunning in it's mouth. They both are set to trigger when it breathes.

The only real loss is the lack of frightful presence. Which I make up for by scribing Symbols of Fear on each wing, the tail and head. With the symbols triggering when a hundred feet apart they'll act as a decent imitation.


	22. Aglarond

Chapter 22 Aglarond

I decide to shelve the issue of where to place the AT-TEs for now. Besides a single unit isn't really a group. I'd need more units first. And while I had ideas I wanted to follow up on my of my earlier ones. I wanted to get the autograph of the Simbul.

Ok. Not really. But I did want to help her out since I was a fan of her character.

Time to go sight seeing.

When I first teleported over and bought a map I froze in shock. Aglarond was almost completely surrounded by enemies. I already knew they had Thay to the west, but to the south as well? How have they survived with only a forest to protect their southern border?

Maybe it's Unther's presence? A rival expansionistic, militaristic nation would explain why the area was never really developed.

Even the other sides aren't safe, even if they aren't as bad. Thesk at least is neutral, but the Fang, a literal part of the country, hates the rest. Which just sounds like a potential disaster.

It was the east that was the true surprise. Altumbel is not so much a country as a collection of dozens of smaller city states. All of them hostile to Aglarond. The only reason they aren't a threat is their lack of organization.

Not that that stops them. Altumbel has dozens of pirate fleets, which when not attacking each other, attack Aglarond.

It only takes a few divination spells to confirm all the rumors and gossip. Aglarond is practically under siege from two sides and has only a trading partner to the north. So this will be both easier and harder than anticipated.

Allying myself shouldn't be difficult. The problem was where? There really isn't anywhere to place a settlement. The area is too thickly settled.

Idly I fly back and forth, just trying to get impressions and seeing if anything sparks an idea. Seeing a merchant ship getting attacked I pause to watch the battle.

Actually this is perfect. After all it was under similar circumstances that I met Herask.

Yuiredd Taelstarr was very grateful for me saving him. Even if I did terrify him at first. He's a brave man though, willing to challenge me even after seeing me destroy two pirate ships. I like him.

It doesn't take much to convince him. People are naturally greedy, merchants even more so. In fact it doesn't take much to convince his entire family to start working for me.

It wasn't like I demanded that much. I didn't need them to spy for me. I can just use a Limited Wish to provide any information I need. Mostly I needed them to arrange for a new settlement.

Not mine either. No they were going to start a town right on the Aglarond side of the Altumbel border. I wanted them to build a massive manor, a trade house, warehouses and everything else needed for a newly starting trading outpost completely under their control.

After all, only I take over Altumbel, I'll need trading partners.

I tasked a few bone nagas to shuttle supplies and trade goods over to them so they could pay for it all. And while that is going on I start working on my newest group.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I ended up choosing to use Chuul. Partially because I ended up running across one and I had so little experience with them. The rest because when I used Mindrape on it I realized how perfect they were.

Chuul look a lot like a someone took a lobster, made it vaguely humanoid, removed its tail, replaced it's legs with four lizardfolk legs and then merged its face with that of a carrion crawler. Due to it's hunched over posture it only stands about seven feet high and only stretches out for eight.

But it is it's mind that really surprises me. It's incredible, with layers upon layers of programmed instincts. All of it built around a some kind of artificial racial memory. It has one primary behavioral urge, which is to hunt and raid surface races. Otherwise it behaves much like wolves despite it's decent intelligence.

Underneath everything though was another set of instincts. Not even commands really, but a weakness towards mental control. Which is reinforced by how easy they take to conditioning. Normally it's buried so far that likely only the aboleth's who placed it there could find it, but I used Mindrape. In an instant I understood the entirety of its mind. And just as easily changed it.

I didn't try to tamper with the Chuul's core mindset. Frankly I wasn't sure if it was possible to change them that much. Instead I just change who they target. It felt poetic to have them hate aboleths. And since I have no use for Sahuagin or Kua-toa I include them as well.

I'm sad they're too unnatural to be turned into woodlings, but at least I managed to get the chameleon template working. Even better I was able to modify it so that it affected the chuul's tendrils since it lacked a tongue. And as a final bonus I infuse them with the spellwarped template. After all, without hands, they need all the advantages they can get.

I thoroughly abuse Wish spells when fashioning my new creature. Adding senses like tremorsense and blindsight on top of the templates. Then I took one and studied the changes fang dragon blood made and copied it.

After I had finished fine tuning it I feed it to a deepspawn. For once the memory erasure process will be a boon. The new race will have a completely fresh start. And to help I add normal chuul's to their list of hated enemies.

The last change I make involves their leaders. As they are currently, they'll just be another marauding monster. Albeit a slightly more clever one. So they need something to organize them. It actually takes a quite a bit of work to figure out one that can fit my plans. And of all things it turns out grell are the best fit.

Grell are viewed as savage and nearly mindless by most other races. The truth is far different. Grell are highly intelligent. Much more so than most other races in fact. The problem was their world view.

Grell divide all of reality into a few categories. Grell, food, dangerous, other. They don't eat each other and anything they can't eat, like undead or constructs, goes into other. Food obviously is eaten. And things that are dangerous is either avoided or ganged up on to be turned into food.

And that was it. Grell's entire existence revolves around food. Which is why I felt safe shifting my chuul's ingrained obedience over to them. After all grell will only try to eat them, not lead them. Which means I won't have to worry about someone trying to steal my minions.

It was made easier because they look so much like floating brains. Since brains are extremely poisonous to them, chuul aren't even tempted to eat them. I'm not sure if it helped that they both used paralyzing tentacles, but at least it didn't hurt.

I even have a leader. One of the gladiators who I had trained to dual wield blackwood duoms. It was more of an experiment at the time, but it was perfect for my plans. A Wish and Mindrape later and I now had an eighth level fighter grell. One that specialized in wielding a duom.

It wasn't hard to build a set of spears for the grell. Well build might be a misleading. More like research. I tattoo each of his tentacles so that they can conjure up +1 deadly precision duoms based off the normal grell silver spears. Which work because they also have a tattoo of Sniper's Eye.

Bracers of blinding strike mean my grell will be able to make thirty attacks a round. With a partner they'll shred any enemy they face. Well, any that aren't immune to sneak attacks. And best of all it fits the whole grell ignoring undead and constructs. Not that it's that important, but it's nice when details like that work out.

Ideally population Altumbel will only take a few years. With a new spawn being made every month I can have a thousand new chuul born in a year. A curse of aging will speed up their growth to only year as long as there is enough food. And each generation will be exponentially larger. At least as long as the food holds out.

Altumbel is more than just coasts and small islands though. The majority of the country is a peninsula twenty miles across and over a hundred long. Plenty of land. And while I could dig canals all over the place, that seems wasteful.

Instead I'm going to use an idea I had a while back. It isn't easy finding a newly born dryad and I feel a bit guilty for killing her, but I really need one for my set up and oak trees grow really fast. And my experiments with cuttings and seeds hadn't gone anywhere. And feeding a dryad to a deepspawn without her tree as well means it dies within a few weeks.

Thankfully it works and soon enough I have a deepspawn dedicated to spitting out newborn dryads. It's irritating that I can't train her at all, but at least I can tattoo her later on. For now I settle on creating the first forest Altumbel has had in three hundred years.

I go all out too. The primary forest is going to be oak since both it's the same as the dryad's and to give them a target for when I tattoo them with the Liveoak spell. The dryads will be clustered in groups of three for mutual protection. Each dryad's grove will be based around a fey cherry, although I intend to scatter more throughout the forest later. Both blueleaf and weirwood trees will also be scattered due to the way they magically light up.

I'm aiming for an enchanted forest theme. Using Plant Growth cuts down the set up time by a couple of decades should help that impression. Fey of all kinds will be welcome, although not elves. And to keep them out I seed plenty of needlefolk in my new forest.

I want more that just that as defenders though. After all I wanted a magical forest and not much says magic like unicorns. Like the dryad though it felt wrong killing a unicorn. Even for a good cause. Still, like the chuul, I'll soon be able to start breeding my own.

I even know how to explain it since unicorns are intelligent. Thay has black unicorns. Which they made from a unicorn breeding program. I rescued them from Thay. All true, but very misleading. All I need to do is set up the deepspawn near Delthuntle, which Thay officially claims, but haven't even visited in years.

I didn't stop there. After all the entire point of a group was to provide me with a means of projecting force in new areas. Which means I need an army that can and will leave the forest. And inspired by the fact that my leaders will all be using masses of spears I decide to use darktentacles.

Darktentacles were a new species that had recently appeared in the Mere of Dead Men. The best my divination spells could tell, they were created as one of the side effects of the Time of Troubles. However, the yellow musk creepers and other plant creatures have pretty thoroughly dominated the swamp. Rather than just kill them, I opted to move them.

Unfortunately they're both highly intelligent, anti-social and extremely sadistic. Which means I have to layer them in permanent curses in order to make them controllable. A touch cruel, but they were just too potentially useful to just kill off.

Which gives me the edge I need against hordes of lesser undead. The best part is since they're large size I can just heavily tattoo one and then copy it. Darktentacles are already dangerous. Augmented with bracers of blinding strike, strength and dexterity boosts, damage reduction, and energy resistances they're terrifying.

To make the most of their natural advantages I also tattoo them with Enlarge Person. Well a monster variant. The extra size increases it's reach from fifteen feet to twenty-five. I don't even need to provide weapons for them. Another variation of the tattoo I use for the Eldar lets each tentacle summon it's own +1 balanced longspear. Something that brings their reach to a full fifty feet.

They're like the grell, only scaled up for battlefields.

Since I plan on just copying them and I've already bound them tightly, it makes sense to augment them as much as possible. And since a mummy is the only type of undead I can turn them into and preserve their abilities, I imbue them with red-dragon blood. After all why leave a weakness to fire if I don't need too?

On that vein I add light resistances to the other energy types as well. And to deal with the next biggest weakness, it's mobility, I add flight. It's a huge investment, but I have no doubt they'll prove to be a match for just about anything else I've created.

Especially since they won't be operating alone. Because while giant floating balls of stabby death are good, I need more than just that. And since I was creating an enchanted forest it only seemed right that whatever I made fit that theme.

I ended up deciding on Topiary Guardians. It was actually an easy choice since it was one of the few constructs I can have built by my bone nagas. All I needed to do was substitute another Limited Wish for the Awaken spell.

The topiary triceratops was perfect. Able to deal enough damage in a single strike to take care of enemies that can't be whittled down. And also possessing the trample ability, which means they now have an AoE attack.

To further supplement my forces I decide to go with another druidic style construct. The fang golem. The fact that their materials provides me an excuse to create ranches for deer, elk and small moose is only a bonus. Not to mention the dire porcupines and quillflingers.

A quillflinger isn't an animal which is both good and bad. Bad in that I can't use it's skull like I can the porcupines. Good in that since I can't use the skull already there isn't any reason not to alter the creature further.

In the end, while I do release several in my new forest I opt to not breed quillflingers. I decide to spawn them instead. After all, while fang-dragon blood is powerful, I wasn't willing to just unleash such a species without some means of controlling them. And this way I can magically tattoo them as well.

It was tricky altering the might fist properties so they apply to natural thrown attacks as well, but completely worth it. After all while +1 isn't much, the precise, distance, exit wounding and splitting properties are incredibly powerful. And just in case enemies attack in melee the quills also have fleshgrinding.

I add in all the standard buffs as well. However I make sure to include a sterility curse, a permanent charm and a set of runes that will cause the body to explode upon death. No need to make it too easy for a red wizard to reverse engineer what I did.

In keeping with the whole forest theme and since I was soon going to be a country, I decided to export wood. Not from the actual forest, but from special farms set up underground to grow trees just for harvesting. Not only will I have all the trees naturally found in my forest, but calan and zalantar as well.

I might even expand later if need me. Although I doubt it. After all my soon to be Endor isn't really designed to be a major trade hub. It's more a means of increasing it's value in the eyes of other nations. Which shouldn't be too. After all Altumbel is a former nation of pirates.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Paying for the spells was easy too. I simply sold entire crowds of people to the devils. Pirates, despite being evil, are definitely not law abiding. Which means their souls would normally avoid hell. It was easy too. I just staged an enormous assault on the city of Spandeliyon, the capital of Altumbel.

I brought in my flight of dragons and had them fly around the edges of the city, scaring off the guards before steadily spiraling inwards. And as the people crown into the center of the city I slip in a few Mass Suggestions. Soon enough, everyone tries to escape through a conveniently escape tunnel.

A few Walls of Stone, illusions and a Gate later and people were pouring into hell. A sudden drop into a pit of lava meant they died almost instantly, meaning they didn't have any chance to pray for escape or aid.

The only issue was Klauth. The problem was that he was simply too big. Anyone seeing how large he is would end up eventually concluding it was Klauth. Even if he doesn't have the same facial scars. So I had to actually invent a Reduce Person just for him and tattoo it on.

I made sure to leave plenty of clues behind. A few trampled survivors, giant claw marks and careful use of spells to simulate dragon's breath. I even leave a few pieces I saved from the Tiamatspawn. Small things like a tooth, scale or chipped claw. When people investigate I want all th evidence to point towards Tiamat.

I don't stop there either. After all why change what works? Besides, I need to clear out Altumbel at some point. May as well shift as much blame as possible towards Tiamat.

Towards that end I repeat the attack on several other towns across Altumbel. This time including a number of skeletons glamoured to look like Tiamatspawn. I even pick out a number of people from each place to sell a slaves down in Unther. After all that's where Tiamat has her strongest ties.

I make sure not to kill everyone though. After all it'll take at least a year to build up enough to start securing the borders. And if it ends up completely empty Aglarond might be tempted to annex it.

Although hopefully they will be too distracted by my move at the other side of their country.

The Umber Swamp is one of the borders between Thay and Aglarond. No one really wants the land and Aglarond uses it as a means of softening up the assaults from Thay. Thay on the other hand views it as an obstacle since they can't send more than undead without massive losses.

Which means there isn't anyone to notice me when I take it over. Not there is much there. Constant floods of undead have pretty much wiped out the more territorial species. The only ones who seem to notice and care are a circle of druids of Silvanus. Who I was more than happy to exterminate. I'm still pissed about Jursa.

I then add a new species. Tren are a hybrid troglodyte and lizardfolk. They're actually a viable new species though and so I was able to add ogre blood to them. Add in the Blooded One ritual that I was reminded of since Thay uses it so much and I have large humanoid salamanders. The amphibious kind, not fire. And the best part is that their skin dries out easily, meaning Thay can't breed up their own.

To rule them I just went with bone nagas. As long as they stay hidden they should be fine. After all no one noticed an entire circle of druids before now. Besides, using constructs and undead it's fairly easy to build underground. Even inside a swamp.

It's even easier with umberhulks. I was a bit worried about them since they're intelligent, but they really are easy to control. They don't mind being enslaved at all as long as they're well fed. And since they prefer intelligent prey, they actually enjoy eating trolls. It was enough to make me regret not thinking of them much earlier.

Soon after I started securing the place I encountered the ormyrr. A large semi-aquatic race that looks like a caterpillar with a head like a cross between a frog and shark. However the important part was that they had the ability to fight using all four of it's arms.

Perfect multidexterity. An incredibly rare ability and I now have two creatures with it. It seems fitting they'd be bracketing Algarand too. Protecting it's sides.

It was easy enough to recruit the tribe of ormyrr. After all they had moved so far north to be close to Thay. Like the rest of their race, they are obsessed with magic. And also don't possess any ability for it.

Promising them a few magic items and more importantly an arcane library won me their eternal loyalty. They were eager for the opportunity to wield magic, even if it meant charging into battle. They really are obsessed. I barely had to make any adjustments.

Since the ormyrr prefer ranged combat I decide to let them have that role. I had considered sending some of the quillflingers down there, but decided to go another route. I took one of them, heavily adjusted it with a Wish spell and then carefully created a simulacrum of it.

Now the ormyrr have an endless source of barbed short spears, javelins and darts. All of which can also be used to arm the tren. Needles too since just in case I dropped off a load of needlefolk seeds.

Perhaps the best part of the ormyrr was that they gave me the perfect name for this set up.

Nar Hutta. Home of the hutts.

It was perfect. Swamps. Reptilian foot soldiers. The ormyrr even look like hutts. Just blue. And with more limbs. And teeth.

Still close enough.

With an alliance of three living races I started making plans to expand. The first plan was to extend Nar Hutta all the way to the river. A bit of discrete digging and a few large rocks should cause the river to spill and spread out. Additionally once numbers have built up a bit I'll place a portal between the Umbar Marsh and Surmarsh.

Which will give me a Nar Shadda. Just north of Thay and close enough to Thesk and Rashemon for trading. Or course now I need to find something they can actually trade. Not easy since I don't want to give Thay anything they can use against me.

In the end I went with giant bees. Poison, wax and honey all seemed valuable enough. A few modified alchemical jugs that solely produce nectar and the hives have plenty of food.

Just in case though I also added scrimshaw. Art seemed harmless enough and it only took one Wish to warp a dungeon bred anklyosaurus so that the armor spikes and tail club were made from ivory.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I likely would have continued ringing Aglarond with various allies. Well, at least not enemies and trading partners. However I was distracted by news. An event widespread enough that the shock of it was heard across the world.

Tiamat is dead.

The news left me feeling numb. She was the first deity to publicly die since the Godswar. Apparently she had taken a chance and challenged Gilgeam to mortal combat and lost. Right the middle of the capitol so there were plenty of witnesses.

Questioning the devils confirmed it. Tiamat was gone and her realm was empty.

I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I had been working so hard to get entrenched deep enough that I can afford to wage war against her and her church. And then she dies without my having done anything.


	23. Change of Pace

Chapter 23 Change of Pace

Tiamat's death obviously means I need to change my priorities. It seems I no longer have an immediate enemy to prepare for. Silvanus, for all my anger at the actions of Jursa, really is pretty apathetic. After all almost all of my ecological changes are still natural. Or at least not regimented to the point where wilflife can't move in.

In fact I wonder if I might be able to ally with Silvanus's church. He can't object to using magic to alter the environment or his church would have long since done something about Neverwinter Woods. Fire elementals are by no means part of the normal wilderness.

It was a thought for then I have more time. Unfortunately as if life can't leave me alone an event I had been preparing for has begun. Something I had intended to take advantage of.

The Tuigan Horde has arrived.

It wasn't in Faerun yet. They were currently on the other side of the Sunset Mountains and fighting Thay, but that won't last long. If things follow canon, Thay will soon start opening passage so they can attack Thesk.

The annoying part is I'm not ready! Utapau isn't nearly developed enough to field more than a small company of medusa and grimlock troops. Endor and Nar Hutta are even worse since I was still in the process of establishing them.

I can't even just send troops over randomly. My original excuse was to supply lizardfolk phalanxes as a means of advertisement. Except I don't have them anymore after the fighting and purges. And no one else is set up as a mercenary force. The best I can really do is send the Warforged since as adventurers they have an excuse for being attracted to danger.

I guess I can at least use the opportunity to establish more adventuring bands. It shouldn't be hard to field one from each of my groups. Or at least a few of them. Well at least one.

Huh.

Looking through my groups I realize I really haven't been setting them up for personal strength. Aside from the Eldar, and I can't use them since they'll be revealed as undead, everything is designed to work in large groups. Or at least against large groups.

I don't have anything suitable for adventurers. At least without revealing way too much. And I've divided out ideas and such between the groups, making assembling a versatile squad even harder.

I suppose I can work behind the scenes, staging natural disasters and such. But this was a prime opportunity for good press. It seemed like such a waste not to take advantage of it. Besides, there are likely to be several high level fighters among the Tuigan. They'd make amazing dread warriors.

I was actually the thought of natural disasters that gave me an idea. Natural disasters aren't restricted to just things like weather after all. In a world where literal acts of god exist lots of things are considered disasters. Things like plagues. Or locust swarms.

Or dragons.

A band of people are hard to put together, but a single individual? A unique dragon? Much, much easier. And I just so happen to have several dragon corpses already animated and enhanced.

It also fits in with other events. Tiamat's death seems to have roused several dragons. Tchazzar, a red dragon I vaguely remember trying to become a god, recently showed up in Chessenta. Along with a blue and green dragon who are currently rampaging through Mulharond. So what's a few more?

I currently have a giant red, four black and two blue dragon bodies. And thanks to the Dark Elf books and a bit of quick spell work I also have two more. Icingdeath, a great wyrm white dragon, and Shimmergloom, a great wyrm shadow dragon. It would have been a shame to just leave them there to rot.

It's quite the collection and truthfully I won't be able to get all of them ready in time. However I only need one. After all dragons rarely gather together unless prompted by something else.

I decided to go with Olonther's and the other blue dragon's bodies for a couple of reasons. The first was because they fit the environment. Thanks to weather manipulation spells the part of Thesk closest to Thay was wracked by constant storms. Blue dragons won't be vulnerable to natural lightning.

The second is that blue dragons are lawful. A pair setting up a large organization isn't out of character for them. Even if it's exceptionally well organized. It also means that they tend to keep their word, which means Thesk will be more likely to be willing to bargain with them.

One of the issues is that I need to change the way they fight now. Having a large number of new dragons show up, all using flameskulls will be more than a bit suspicious.

The first thing I do is provide them with bracers of armor that carry similar enchantments to Laeral's Storm Armor. They already have energy resistances and are immune to lightning. Being able to ignore wind at will will mean they can completely ignore almost any weather. The armor also carries a modified robe of eyes enchantment that allows the bone nagas inside to see all around.

Further since I wanted to make them individuals I created unique fighting styles for each other them. Gale would focus on wind or at least what appears to be wind. Spells like an Vortex of Teeth, Tail Sweep and Wings of Flurry can all be cast with metamagic to be invisible.

Although I did have to invent a spell to replicate the Shared Spells class feature to allow the bone nagas to cast using the dragon's body as the base. It would have been horribly embarrassing if they cast Wings of Flurry and it tore the dragon apart from the inside.

To support the image I was going for I placed a permanent blur on the dragon that only kicked in when certain spells were cast. And even then for only one round. I also enchanted his claws with the screaming and thundering properties.

Bolt on the other hand focused much more on lightning. Using the same Shared Spells enchantment the bone nagas can spam enlarged lightning bolts, cones of lightning and other spells. Even Chain Lightning. And to get him more in theme I add a variation of prismatic wall that only triggers the minor blinding effect. Like the blur it only triggers when it casts lighting spells. I also enchant it's claws with shocking burst.

I had so many more ideas, but not enough time to implement them. As it was I was nearly too late.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Azoun, fourth to bear the name, king of Cormyr, and leader of the Western Alliance, roared in savage joy as he drove his sword into another enemy. This, more than anything was what he lived for. The thrill of battle, adapting and getting better. Pushing his men to be more.

And they were his men. Every single one of them. No matter if they were the eerie silent dwarves from Earthroot or the zhentish orcs, every last one of them was under his command. Which made them his. And my Helm he'd do his best for them.

Besides, he was responsible for them all being here in the first place. No one else had taken the divination warnings seriously. And sure, he didn't completely either. But it was an excuse for a fight and once he discovered the true danger he had made sure to spread the word.

People take a king more seriously than a mage or cleric. But no one understood how bad it was, not even himself, until Thay had started opening portals. Treacherous, dishonorable bastards.

Despite his best efforts, Azoun IV hadn't been able to gather more than twenty-eight thousand troops between almost a dozen sources. It made coordinating them extremely difficult. And facing them was over ten times their number of enemies. Every single one of them an experience cavalry archer.

It was a formidable task. Daunting in scope. Enough to break a lesser man under the pressure. That's what made it so much fun.

Still Azoun IV couldn't deny they were taking heavy losses. No amount of tactical brilliance could completely overcome the fact they were so completely out numbered. They were winning. But the losses incurred were hideous.

Yet they can't retreat. If they tried to hide behind the walls of a city the horde will just bypass them to ravage another. So they have to stay out in the open. Bait to draw them in and then try to bloody them enough to break them.

Azoun grins and claps Stonehammer on the shoulder. The Earthroot dwarves have proven to be reliable allies. In fact the current plan depends on them quite heavily.

Azoun had exhausted all of his war wizards setting up his trap. At first they were extremely effective, but the Tuigan were clever bastards and soon started constantly harassing them. He played along, pretending to lose mages at a steady pace.

For his trap though he was gambling them all. He had even called up all the ones in reserve to help set up the trap before leaving. At least he wasn't gambling their lives. Just his reputation.

Still if it pays off the Western Alliance will win a massive victory. The best part was the terrain. The Tuigan had learned early not to face them except on open ground. Riding up slopes left them vulnerable to spear walls and mudslides. Riding downhill the same, except they made even easier targets for the mages.

So the perfectly flat plain was a must. However it was also extremely boring terrain. With a bland sameness that made it easy to use a number of Hallucinatory Terrain spells without anyone realizing. And whiile the Tuigan scouts had proven very adept at spotting traps, there wasn't anything there to find. Yet.

It took a lot of planning arranging to mine out a large enough circle to create a massive moat. Even more to do so in secret and then conceal it. And then they had to do it a second time. After all defenses are nice, but ones they can trap their enemies against are better.

Truthfully this wasn't his first idea, but there wasn't any need for riskier plans yet. Powerful adventuring bands had proved to make a formidable difference on the battlefield. And while most of them hadn't survived, the few who had made a huge difference. He was halfway considering sponsoring some himself. Now if only they weren't so... different.

The Warforged, which seemed to be a bunch of constructs made by an insane cleric of Gond. After all he follows his own creations around proclaiming them the heralds of a new age.

The Scourge. Which almost everyone hated since they were undead. That and the fact that they picked the battlefield afterwards looking for corpses. At least they aren't stealing ones from their own side. At least not openly. Not that anyone was prepared to do anything. Not after witnessing them in action.

Azoun still was unsure about them, but the priests all agreed the skull lord leading them was likely only looking for bodies to create spectral riders and nothing else. And he hadn't tripped any of the truth spells when they questioned him. And they weren't the only undead either!

The Nightsingers despite looking more normal, were even creepier. Especially the leader and the way she carried around the small undead girl, treating it like her daughter. Hopefully it wasn't and she was just crazy, it was too disturbing to think otherwise.

Actually thinking about it, it seems like each of the bands are pretty much created by a single incredibly powerful spellcaster. Maybe he should just concentrate on improving his war wizards instead of sponsoring more adventurers.

Azoun tenses in anticipation when the Tuigans finally draw close. They had been hesitant, probing his lines for over an hour, but the bait was just too tempting to pass up. Once he can tell they've committed he snaps the stick he was clutching in his hand. The tiny flare of magic as it triggers the trap undetectable under the protection of all the spells he's currently under.

For better or worse they're committed now. The trap is on a timer and can't be turned off.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The trap works beautifully. Half an hour into the battle the ground caves in under the front ranks of the Tuigans and only the Tuigans. Azoun has had plenty of experience to figure out how they move. Even as their vanguard falls screaming into the gigantic trench that appeared as dozens of Walls of Stone are dispelled, another opens behind them.

As his army pushes the few enemies on their side of the trench Azoun is already snapping out orders. Dozens of scrolls are consumed, casting earth spells to build a crude fortress. Cover and height will allow him to annihilate the enemies safely. The trench is over forty feet deep and wide, the Tuigan aren't going anywhere.

Almost as if to mock him the Tuigan start moving. Scouts start reporting that the Tuigan are using their shamans to erode the sides of the trench. Not filling it in, but creating ramps. It seems he doesn't have as much time as he hoped.

Not like it'll matter. Azoun starts laughing as he hears screams coming from the first to try and escape. He can picture the scene as unstoppable undead tore into them. And before the Tuigans manage to overwhelm them with sheer numbers, their coordination is shattered by a rain of fireballs.

The adventuring bands really were useful. Neither of the necromancers had minded risking the majority of their bands in return for an official adventuring charter from the alliance. And the Warforged had managed to put him in touch with Mechanisburg. Where apparently the crazy Gondsman is normal. Still, they had been more than willing to 'donate' a number of wands of fireball in return for only a few trade concessions.

Truthfully, Azoun likely would have been willing to accept the deals anyway. While the Cormyrian army had plenty of magic items due to the war wizards, Mechanisburg specialized in the creation of the items that were always in demand. Consumables.

Things like potions, scrolls and wands. In fact few war wizards made them at all unless necessary due to them being viewed as wasteful. Having a source for them, and at ten percent below market value, was invaluable. Something the others had agreed with as well.

Thesk had been by far the most enthusiastic about the deal. They loved the idea of a source of magic items that wasn't dependent on their treacherous, ambitious neighbor.

Yes, everything was going perfectly. The company of griffon riders Aglarond had lent them was making great use of the wands to prevent the Tuigan from organizing.

Thinking back on it later, Azoun concluded that it was probably that last thought that drew Beshabas attention. After all how else could things go so wrong without the personal attention of the goddess of bad luck?

The first sign that his magnificent plan wasn't going to work was the clouds. The sky had been clear all morning and suddenly massive clouds, heavy with rain started forming. Azoun didn't need to be a druid to know that wasn't natural. And he, like everyone else, initially blamed Thay.

If only it had been.

They were moving so quickly that barely anyone noticed. Even if they had there wasn't time to react. There was a thunderous crash along with a blinding flash of light and suddenly there were a pair of massive blue dragons standing in the middle of the Tuigan army.

One of the them said something in a rumbling voice Azoun barely recognized as draconic. Making him really wish he had paid more attention in some of his lessons. Or at least had a translator nearby. Not that he'd be able to hear a translator. Not over the panicking screams as everyone attempted to move away from the dragons.

They split up, plowing separate paths through the trapped horde. As he watched Azoun realized they were playing.

The dragon on his right, which had slightly brighter scales, was using lightning. But not his breath weapon. Instead the dragon was launching sprays of lighting from it's wing claws. Each time it's scales would glow so brightly they blinded many of his men. And the one time the Tuigan tried to counterattack it literals exploded in a wave of crackling energy.

The other dragon seems almost to fade in and out of view. It took him a moment to realize what was happening. Even then he didn't want to believe it. It was ludicrous. Ridiculous even. Yet it was still happening.

The very air was visibly distorting. Each twitch of it's tail sent out a shock wave that hurled bodied. Each flap of it's wings crushed enemies into the earth. And each gesture of it's claws shredded enemies dozens of feet out of it's reach.

Then the weather got worse. Sheets of rain with the occasional hailstone. And of course plenty of lightning and wind. Even brief showers of acid. It was horrific. And all of it spreading out from the dragons.

Thankfully no one under his command was fool enough to launch an attack on the dragons. Instead they sat quietly and uneasily, watching as two dragons destroyed an army that still outnumbered them by a factor of eight.

Thank Helm for back up plans.


	24. Circumvallation

Chapter 24 Circumvallation

It was incredibly funny seeing the reactions to my dragons. The most common seemed to be just pure horror. Although I can't really blame the Tuigan for that. After all my dragons did have several symbols of fear on each of them. Not to mention the others. In fact they could likely disable, if not kill, most of the Tuigan just by flying over them now that so many are triggered.

Still, for all their formidable prowess the real killer is the weather. While each move of their killed dozens, massive gusts of wind threw hundreds. Tornadoes sucked up enemies and spat out crushed pulp and the entire time hail steadily slammed into anything without cover. And the dragons weren't giving them the breathing room to construct any.

Providing them with Orbs of Storms was definitely one of my better moves. Tattooing Control Wind to their wing might have been a bit much though. Even if it is incredibly effective.

I worried that I might accidentally wipe out the Western Alliance army until I saw them shrinking. Azoun the magnificent bastard, had managed to construct escape tunnels. Large ones too if how quickly his army was vanishing was any indication.

It was an impressive few hours before I recalled the dragons. The Tuigan horde was thoroughly shattered. Not only was the bulk of their army injured or dead, but Azoun had taken his army and instead of holing up, staged a raid on the Tuigan camp.

The few guards had been easily overrun and the entire camp captured. He freed all the slaves and after arming them, had several thousand more soldiers. Or at least well motivated militia.

Despite my best efforts though, the dragon's couldn't kill them all. A quarter million horsemen were simply to many. The second trench had been filled in multiple places with the bodies of hundreds of fleeing Tuigan, more than enough to provide escape routes.

Still the army was gone. The dragons had made sure to hunt down and kill all the leaders and champions they could find. I had plenty of time to identify them while I was prepping the dragons.

Surprisingly, despite the Dragonjaw Mountains on the southern border, the Thesk Mountains are completely free of dragons. They're barely inhabited at all in fact. Mostly only having tribes of hill giants and goliaths.

Which meant there was no one to mind when I had the dragons lair in the Thesk Mountains. Of course that might be due to the fact that the entire area was largely uninhabited. And not just from the Tuigan raids. Thay had a history of pillaging across the land. And of course there was the seasonal tornadoes.

It was an interesting experience to take over a group of non-evil beings. The goliaths were much more neutral in outlook, preferring to avoid trouble when possible. Seeing their culture through their own eyes was fascinating.

The way they viewed existence as a constant friendly competition so alien I couldn't understand it completely, despite using Mindrape. I understood enough though. At least enough to change them without having to start completely over.

It wasn't too hard. Organize their society and culture a bit more so that rankings are viewed as a set of standards. Have them shift loyalties to militant orders instead of tribes. Adjusting the set of rules that are considered normal and fair.

Naturally I can't restructure their society without also changing their living environment. Which is why while I was busy rewriting all the goliath minds I was also busy rebuilding the northernmost mountain in the range. Hollowing it out, building numerous living quarters, training halls, communal areas. Everything needed for multiple militant orders. All connected by large tunnels and narrow bridges.

Since I wanted them to be truly militant I needed to give them something to strive against. Things to use to mark progress and compete with each other. So instead of larders I built miniature ecosystems. I still use trolls as a basis, but then add a number of extra layers. Giant termites, carrion crawlers, otyughs and myconids. I even add in dire apes, although dungeon bred and otherwise modified to create the best future stone beasts.

Protecting all of this was a number of undead, primarily hordes of zombies. After all they are the easiest to create using a morgh. However thanks to my discovery of skull lords I can also add various skeletons, bone spurs and serpentir in endless waves as well.

I also make sure to add things like traps and magical obstacles. After all goliaths live for challenges. The harder the better. And frequent exposure to hostile magic will make sure they're prepared to face a mage.

To support them I install several dwarven dread craftsman. Thanks to their racial traits and the half-ogre template, my goliaths will be capable of wielding gargantuan size weapons. I plan on them all using the largest weapons possible which will put the average damage of their weapons at 4d6.

It helps that I left the goliaths as a communal society. I can simply fill an armory with appropriate equipment and not have to worry about continuously creating individual gear. I'll likely enchant the weapons as well. With Undead Bane and Balances likely being the most common properties used.

At least I don't have to make armor. Goliaths really dislike covering their skin, one of the reasons I made them woodlings. Spellwarped also improved their defenses, albeit in a different manner.

The weapons are going to be central to my military orders. Each one devoted to mastery of a single weapon. Rankings will be based off accomplishments that denote the gain of a feat. Such as the ability to kill multiple zombies in a single swing showing they learned great cleave.

The pinnacle of the new society was the warhulk. The ability to push themselves incredibly far past all previous limits, continuously getting stronger. It was upheld as the ultimate goal for all goliaths and anyone who completed the training was turned into a half-blue dragon. Training was considered complete when the warrior could spin and attack everything around him.

Of course goliaths have short lifespans. Only human length and that before I added my curse. So there will be a steady stream of goliaths who eventually physically can't improve any further. Normally they will go into voluntary exile, spending their life on one last reckless act or just sink into a depression. Which is a complete waste.

So I came up with an alternative. Getting infused with elemental essence to become a half-elemental. Then training to master their new energies before ultimately sacrificing themselves in the creation of a battle horror. A way to completely push themselves beyond the boundaries of their bodies and a final service to their people. Or so I advertise.

I've already figured out how to use alternative outsiders to power constructs. A willing spirit would requite minimal binding. The entire process would become much easier. Faster too without having to wrestle the spirit into submission. And it wasn't like the spirit had to be evil. They were just the ones that end up filled with enough anger and hate to push to hurt others. After all, a depressed spirit doesn't make for a very motivated construct.

Afterwards I can even use the corpse to create powerful undead. Even just a zombie would be formidable with a fifty in strength.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It was actually a memory fragment that gave me the inspiration for my next act. Thay at some point unleashed a dragon turtle in Lake Mulsantir to disrupt shipping and weaken Rasheman. I don't think it worked though. Dragon turtles aren't very obedient. Much like true dragons.

Which is why I'm going to create my own.

It wasn't hard to find one. Dragon turtles are common in the Lake of Steam, the plentiful food allowing them to flourish. Quickly finding the largest one there I quickly killed it and collected the body. Dragon turtles are dangerous to an adventuring band. And maybe normal military. But for a flight of dragons, backed by powerful undead and constructs? Easy.

Finding one just small enough a deepspawn can consume it was much trickier in comparison. I ended up getting impatient and just killed a dozen of various sizes. Surely one of them will work.

It was impressive to see just how large a dragon turtle can grow. With a shell measuring thirty feet across, it was a behemoth. Animating and augmenting it the same way I did the dragons actually proved just as difficult. Layers of magical tattoos, not just to bind it, but make it immune to external control were required.

It was worth it. Stretching forty feet long and able to grow up to sixty with an Enlarge Person, it could sink any boat it wanted that tried to cross the lake. I focused on it's defenses since it seemed the most appropriate. It was a turtle after all.

I used an array of symbols, but arranged them differently. Symbols of Fear and Stunning were set to automatically trigger unless it used a command to suppress them. I wanted enemies to feel it's presence before it even surfaced. After that Spell Loss and Insanity could be triggered along with multiple Enlarged Fear spells. I wanted everything to be considered an effect of primal terror.

Like for the false dragons I placed a bone naga in the throat of of the dragon turtle. While It won't completely make up for lacking a breath weapon, things like Control Water and Solid Fog will provide a decent trade off. Not to mention Fireball.

The juvenile dragon turtle was treated the opposite way. The fact they would largely be underwater will be their best defense. And I wasn't going to bother giving them any spellcasting abilities. Instead I focused on turning them into physical combatants.

I used Wish spells to improve it's natural attacks before alchemically infusing it with fang dragon blood. The combination actually pushed it's physical damage higher than a full grown dragon turtles. And that was before I added Sharptooth enchantments.

For what was meant to be disposable minions they were very tough. Eleven hit die means they have quite few hit points. Since they couldn't simply sink boats by using their bulk I made them mobile. Swim speed boost, land speed boost, spiderclimb. They won't tip over boats, they'll swarm them.

They were even large enough to just barely fit a necrosis carnex inside. Which meant they had fast healing. However since I didn't want them to be trapped and studied I also implanted a suicide function, allowing them to explode in bursts of negative energy. Which would normally be bad for the environment. Thank Silvanus there aren't any large predators in the lake.

Since I could hardly have a source of dragon turtle eggs without two dragon turtles I was forced to go back and collect a third. Still, a pair of massive dragon turtles working together is much safer than a single one.

It also meant I could customize the spells between the two and have more versatility. Not to mention adding in all the base construction spells I was going to need. After all it wouldn't do for someone to find out they didn't create the massive underwater complex I was designing for the locathah.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The locathah are an interesting species. They are largely nomadic, which meant like the goliaths they relied on an oral tradition to keep their history. It's those tales that shape them and make them fiercely loyal.

It wasn't hard to capture a number and create a new story for them. A tragedy of a peaceful society that had risen up under the benevolent rule of the dragon turtles, only to lose it all when Thay attacked. Enormous losses and great magicks that erased all their progress, forcing them to rebuild.

Other than a bit of personal history though, the locathah were just about perfect. With their memories they didn't mind at all shifting from nomads into farmers and ranchers. Enormous caves were slowly carved in the lake bed, air pockets, permanent Light spells and coral walls all creating a secure underwater kingdom.

Phase doors and illusory walls are common security features. The primary one though is the maze-like nature of the complex along with the mass of Symbols of Insanity spread throughout the place. With only locathah and animals immune, they can expect to be reasonably safe.

In keeping with the Cthulhu theme I have going I name the city R'lyeh. I also dredge up an old memory and use a Wish to get the information on how to construct elder eidolons. After all I'm hardly likely to create a society that doesn't provide me with some military advantage.

I would have preferred to use a darktentacles, but they were too new to fit my created backstory. So I settled for a giant octopus. It isn't a bad choice. Pile on templates like woodling and half-fang dragon turns it into a powerful enough creature. Although my favorite addition was an extreme warping of the chameleon template to allow it's tentacles to stretch a further twenty feet.

In many ways it feels I'm paralleling the set up in Altumbel, which almost tempts me into shifting the chuul over to the lake. I don't only because Lake Ashane, which borders Lake Mulsantir, is filled with fey and they would not appreciate something as invasive and prolific as the chuul.

I had carefully designed my locathah society. I had no intention of turning them into a traditional army. Instead I wanted a nation of ranchers. I just plan on expanding that into warfare as well.

Deep below the lake bed, far enough that it was concealed inside a pocket of faerezz I built a workshop. I stored the few things I wasn't able to duplicate with just the dragon turtles I felt was needed for R'lyeh.

The first was a wyvern drake infused with both black and red dragon essence. It went insane as expected, but that hardly mattered once it was feebleminded. It had other problems as well, but none of them affected what I cared about. Which were it's bones. In fact they were perfectly fine, at least the ones I cared about. Better even since they were immune to both fire and acid.

The bones, along with a special type of kelp, allowed my locathah to build compound heavy crossbows that did a full d12 of damage. It also had a range increment of eighty feet even underwater and doesn't have any penalties for firing underwater.

I need the renewable sources of materials because I plan on mass producing them. And not just in a arm every adult way either. The second thing I had down there was a magical workshop manned by bone nagas. They were focused on creating just a single thing. An amulet that casts animate dead. It negates the need for material components along with carrying a desecrate spell effect with it.

To make it cheaper, and more importantly faster, to produce the amulet has several drawbacks. The first is it can only be used by a locathah. Well whatever my version of that race counts as. The second is that the animate part only works on locathah. Meaning it's highly specialized and virtually useless to anyone else.

Ideally I'd be using the bodies of actual locathah to animate. A way of recycling like I set up with the goliaths. Unfortunately they need a bit of a boost in order to work the way I want. So I use deepspawn copies that have a few tattoos etched onto their bones.

Thankfully spawn are loyal enough not to protest. I also don't add many tattoos. There wasn't much point for something as fragile as skeletons. A boost to dexterity and glamoured armor to appear living is about it. The most important one though was the ability to generate ammunition for a ranged weapon being held.

The last addition to their forces were coral golems. Looking like giant stone spiders that had been twisted into a twenty foot tree they stamped around on four legs and used the other four limbs to attack with. They could even break off small shards of coral to hurl at enemies.

Ideally my locathah will fight as captains. Mounted on top of a coral golem or protected by an elder eidolon while leading a squad of thirty skeletal arbalesters.

I have amazing plans involving the locathah. Since I plan on expanding the Surmar along the Sur river I can hardly also expand the lake in that direction. And every other side is ringed by high cliffs.

So instead I plan on creating a portal to Lake Umbar. Much like Lake Mulsantir it doesn't have any real inhabitants, being as it's largely overrun by random magical experiments. Not even powerful ones since with two cities along it's shores the red wizards make sure to kill off anything dangerous.

The portal, like the amulets, is going to be largely restricted to locathah only. The exceptions are going to be undead, constructs and dragon turtles. With the last only just in case anyone manages to examine it.

Control of Lake Umbar, along with the Surmarsh and the Thesk Mountains, will allow me to pretty much cut off Thay from Thesk and Rathemen. It will also allow me to whittle away at several Thayan border cities without exposing the true source of the Locathah attacks.

Eventually the river flowing out of the lake can also be expanded until a path all the way to the Sea of Fallen Stars is made. The information I had gathered from the locathah I took to start my colony revealed they were dying out. Hunted by the more aggressive and organized races there.

It's one of the reasons I never got around to physically altering the locathah I took. I figure within a few generations the sheer success of my locathah will convert the rest. With a larger population base I can just keep expanding. Maybe even manage to loop around and take out The Alaor, Thay's southern naval base.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Sadly it didn't seem possible to completely cut off Thay. They bordered too much of Aglarond for that to happen. And while I did plan on Altumbel, soon to be Endor, to eventually expand and contest their control of the Wizard's Reach, that was years away.

Poor Aglarond. Hopefully my other moves will take off some of the pressure.

Towards that end I decided to try and pressure them a bit more. Taking over any part of the Sunrise mountains would likely trigger outright war, so I settled for the Mountains of Copper. A range to the south of Thay, close enough that a dragon moving in would have to be factored into any plans, but comfortably far enough that provoking it would be more trouble than it was worth.

It helped that the Mountains of Copper didn't have any dragons currently living in them. Or at least not well known ones. The question then became which dragon do I use?

In the end I settle for red. After all it seemed a shame that the animated body of one of the largest red dragons to ever exist isn't being used. In fact when I had added the Reduce Person spell I had included Enlarge Person. With it he can easily dwarf Klauth, measuring over three hundred feet long.

Besides setting him up there will make it much harder to connect the two. After all I doubt anyone in Icewind Dale knows anything about Murghom. And vice versa.

I wasn't going to rely on just a size difference and distance though. One of the easiest means of throwing off suspicion was to change gender. It was the work of a moment to simply alter the armor glamour to show female scale patterns rather than male. Well, a moment and a Wish, but it was worth it since I was able to change the actual dragonscale armor at the same time.

I link a pair of bone nagas to the body from the inside like I did with the pair of blue dragons. While they won't be casting offensive spells except in emergencies, they can constantly buff her.

Looking at my dragon I realized I needed a name for it. And it seemed a shame to go through all that work to imply my dragon is female for no reason. Which is why I also implanted a womb.

Not an actual one of course. It was more of a mine layer. And with a bag of holding it can potentially hold hundreds of 'eggs'. The eggs were actually a small ceramic sphere with Explosive Runes scribed on them. When it breaks it disrupts the glyph, which explodes.

A small explosion isn't worth much though. So each egg is packed with Shelantha's Delicate Discs. I can fit an astounding sixty dics inside the three foot spheres. An abundance of spells.

The first spells are easy enough and obvious as well. Cloudkill. There is nothing like enormous poisonous fog banks to ruin an armies day. And using metamagic rods to widen the spells means the sixteen clouds will take over two minutes to travel far enough they no longer overlap.

Another sixteen are used on Summon Undead V, with a twin spell metamagic rod. Each one set to conjure two wyvern skeletons and travel with one of the clouds. The remaining twenty eight are also holding Summon Undead Vs, but with a delay spell metamagic rod. Seven being triggered two rounds after the explosion and another seven every round after that.

I'd have tried to squeeze in some glowing special effect, but it didn't seem worth it. I doubt anyone will be able to see the remains of the egg through thirty feet green clouds.

Since just dropping the egg seems a bit boring I take one if her claws and enchant it with brilliant energy. Just the claws however so she can still hold the egg. I also place a Silent Image that when triggered creates a fake ritual circle. When not creating a the circle, it defaulted to a different illusion that made the claw look normal.

The ritual circle was a combination of a real Magic Circle and a bunch of random extras to confuse people. Runes from Elder Scrolls. The odd eight pointed star from Fate/Stay Night. The concentric layout from Fullmetal Alchemist. Even some advanced math equations.

Smash the egg inside the circle and done! Maybe have her mutter one of the dragon shouts from Elder Scrolls. It seems a shame to have a ritual circle I spent so much time designing only used for one thing though.

In keeping with the vaguely necromantic theme I decide to go with a blood. Summoning something from her own blood seems pretty necromantic. Even better a bloodfire ooze is something that is created from blood normally. Of course it normally takes an elaborate ritual, but it just makes it seem more impressive this way.

I keep it simple. She just has to reach down and pretend to stab herself in her chest. A preset modified phase door then allows a bloodfire ooze to flow out of where it's imprisoned. I repeat the process with the stomach, although an alchemical golem is what is dropped.

The last thing I added was more for fun than anything. I doubt anyone else will get the reference, but I couldn't resist creating dragon's teeth. The best part was I didn't even have to do much. All I had to do was tattoo Skeletal Guard on a body.

To make it at least semi-effective I stole a general. One how I'm fairly confident had at least some levels in Marshal or a similar class. I gave him a few basic defensive buffs, but since he was considered a disposable unit didn't go all out. However he could summon a weapon. A +1 longspear that also counted as a desecrated, widened banner of the unliving, providing several lesser buffs to surrounding undead within sixty feet.

The main and most expensive part of the set up was the spartoi tattoo. Basically a tattoo that casts a Skeletal Guard. To make it cheaper, it was a disposable unit after all, it only functioned four times before being consumed. And since it used finger bones I had it carry exactly sixty of them.

I even have the perfect creature. The armored trolls I created for the Mere of Dead Men look exactly like greek hoplites. Including armor and weapons. Perfect spartoi.

The fact that used a familiar pocket inside a fake tooth just makes it funnier. I wonder how many others will try and plant teeth from a dragon trying to create powerful undead?

Given how many ways I just provided my dragon to create minions I feel perfectly justified naming her Echidna.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

What kind of mother would a dragon called Echidna be without children? Of course I was going to create an organization for her to lead. It was easy enough. After all dragons automatically have a fanatically loyal minion race in kobolds.

It was even simpler to secure their loyalty beyond their cultural admiration. All I had to do was feed them. It was a small fact I recalled about the kobold afterlife that reminded me and only took a single Mindrape to confirm. Kobolds are primarily motivated by hunger.

It's the one constant in their life. They can always feel it, even right after eating. It can be drowned out by any number of things, but it'll always be there in the back of their mind. Part of the background. They don't even realize how unusual that is.

Is it any wonder their idea of an ideal afterlife is simply one where they don't get hungry?

It also opens up a way for me to push them. To motivate them further than anything else. Freedom from hunger. All it takes is one of the most basic magic items. A Ring of Sustenance.

Not that I was going to tell them that. No, I was going to instead create an elite order. Champions and leaders for the tribe. And each of them will bear an amulet proclaiming their allegiance to Echidna along with denoting their station. And each bearing the sustenance enchantment.

I don't even have to use Mindrape. Echidna's presence was enough to get them to listen to her offer. The demonstration of the amulet instantly converted the rest. Although after passing it around they did act a bit like addicts.

The Mountains of Copper weren't volcanic so I created my own. Not an actual volcano, but a massive vertical shaft boring down from the top of the closest mountain to Thay. Given how riddled with tunnels the mountains are I didn't even try to carve out a place. Instead I simply carved out a massive section of the mountain and then started building.

It was a bit annoying having to cast thousands of Walls of Stone to fill in the areas I wasn't using, but that's why I had so many bone nagas. To keep things simple I kept to the standard ten foot ceilings. Although I did make hallways six feet wide instead of five so I could place a two foot ledge along the sides five feet up. The ledges are large enough to allow far more kobolds to squeeze through a passage than normal.

I built on a massive scale. A floor every thirty feet, extending all the way up the fifteen hundred foot shaft. Each floor ended with an extended balcony that circled the shaft and were stacked on top of each other, supported by rows of large pillars.

I had gaps where small streams of water flowed down the sides of the shaft, pumped from the Clearflow river by animated machines. They also provided water for the rest of the complex, creating small flowing streams.

The impression of a volcano was complete with the column of steam that constantly rose from the shaft. Created by the falling water passing through the various permanent Walls of Fire and permanently headed slabs of iron.

In order for the kobold to survive in the environment I created they needed to be resistant to fire. And since I didn't want to turn them into half-dragons I decided to go with grafting. I even manage to incorporate it into the new culture I was establishing.

Kobolds will be raised far from the central shaft, on the literal fringes of their society. Upon reaching adulthood they'll be given the Gleaming Scales graft which, combined with a dragonhide mantle, will let them survive in the main portions of the base. More expensive grafts will have to be earned.

Achievements could be earned in battle, but I wanted a more formal system in place. So magical aptitude was going to be the benchmark. After all kobolds are naturally sorcerers, it'd be a shame to waste that potential.

To generate the materials needed I had both a half-red dragon pyrohydra and a deepspawn loaded with red dragon eggs. I even have a small group of zezir to be harvested for materials to create alchemical fire. And they weren't the only creatures I gave the the kobolds.

If my kobolds really were to project Echidna's power across a large area, which I would need if I was to even factor into Thay's thinking, they needed a means of covering large distances. Which means mounts. And I had created the very best for them.

I captured a number of giant striders, turned them into half-red dragons and then adjusted them a bit. Minor tweaks mostly, slightly lowering intelligent and modify them for increased speed. In fact they ended up faster than Echidna. Not that it really mattered since the bone nagas could simply teleport her.

I also wanted to do more with the knowledge of wyvern drakes than simply create bone wyrms with them. So I also provided the kobolds a number of red wyvern drake eggs to raise. They would serve them well as aerial weapon platforms.

Yes, Mustafar was coming along nicely.


	25. Rebirth

Chapter 25 Rebirth

Being caught by surprise by the arrival of the Tuigan Horde was not a fun experience despite how well it turned out. As such I was determined to monitor the rest of the events I had marked down as potentially relevant to me.

Thankfully there weren't many. The invasion of orcs in Icewind Dale. The reappearance of the City of Shade in the Anauroch. The elf-dragon invasion of Cormyr. All the crazy stuff that happens with the drow.

And of course the death, again, of the goddess of magic. It's like the position is cursed or something. And they're tenure is getting shorter. The first one lasted over twenty thousand years. The second one less than two thousand. And the current one? If the timeline hasn't been derailed she lasts less than a century.

Truthfully it's this event that drives me more than anything else. Well that and Szass Tams insane war that I sadly can't remember too many details about. Just something about rituals and lots of undead. But it was the death of Mystra that shatters reality and makes me worry so much for my future.

Worse is the problem of my afterlife. Without my patron deity where will I end up? I never really worshiped even Essylliss, although he didn't hold it against me. But now where will I go? Mystra, who can't seem to stay alive? Azuth, who enslaves others such as Savras?

No. So far the plan I like the best is to just not have one. Undead don't have natural lifespans and even if I do end up destroyed I can always just a deal with the devils. From what I remember, all the deities destroy your souls to create their minions. It's just most of the deities preserve a bit more of the original personality when doing so. Which sounds nightmarish personally. If you're going to cut bits of me off, just wipe the slate clean please.

I have two choices for undead. Well only two that I'll seriously consider. The first is of course lich. Classic undead skeletons and eventually a transition to demilich. Except that process isn't documented anywhere and from the bits of lore I can recall has a serious chance of coming out flawed. All the ones I can remember from the stories had some kind of serious weakness.

And that was without the whole phylactery issue. Considering even Halaster while inside Undermountain wasn't safe, I'm not happy over the idea of having a giant vulnerable spot.

Which leaves vampire and even better vampire lord. And that I do know how to become. It's just convoluted, requiring very careful planning since a few of the details aren't completely clear. And it'll take a full century before I even find out if I got it right. Talk about nerve wracking.

However there is a way to become a vampire lord instantly. The Chaos Curse. An artifact level potion. And I just so happen to know where it ends up. The Edifice Library in the Snowflake mountains. A temple and library, I had been keeping an eye on it for over a decade. And it had finally paid off.

The scrying spells had reported the outbreak of war between the goblins and elves in the nearby forest. Which means the potion had already been used and the events of the first book were over.

I had checked and Cadderly along with his girlfriend and dwarven friends were all in the forest. Which means there isn't anyone there who can even potentially threaten me. I still teleport in with a small army of undead and constructs. I wasn't taking any chances with my best chance at immortality.

It's obvious the place isn't a fortress, no matter how it had started out. No sentries. Not even any traps or alarms. The single gardener was easily subdued with a Sleep spell.

Holy water has no effect on a construct. It shouldn't affect me either, but I wasn't sure if the divine spark was enough to count me as an outsider.

I don't drink it immediately. I teleport back. I want to be as secure as possible when I make the change.

Such a small bottle. So much power all contained with an ounce of liquid. It was potent though. The fact it was used in an Eversmoking Bottle without being consumed is proof enough of that. Without a special one like I created it just gets ignores. It was powerful enough to taint the smoke just by being in contact with it. Very impressive.

I suppose there isn't any reason to keep delaying though. I was about as safe as possible right now. Deep inside R'yleh with multiple armies around me. Not to mention traps and wards.

I take a deep breath.

Bottoms up.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The first thing I feed is hunger.

It was a desperate gasping feeling. Clawing at the walls in frustration. So much worse than anticipated. So glad I had made preparations.

I bite the elf and... it was divine. Like nothing I had ever experienced. Like hearing music for the first time. The first bite of a wonderful meal. There aren't words to describe it.

Before I know it she's dry. A shriveled husk that I make sure to burn before discarding. No need to spawn carelessly.

Already my expectations are proving wrong, which isn't a good thing. I take a moment to check over my changes and realize how much sharper my senses are. Colors are more vivid, smells stronger without being nauseating. I can even feel the slight movements of the air on my skin.

It made the world overwhelming. A rhythmic metallic clanging sound caught my attention and I looked around to only see the clock. It ticking, suddenly so loud made me want to smash the clock. I was halfway across the room before I could stop myself.

This was the weakness of becoming a vampire. Not the vulnerability to sunlight and holy items. The sheer glut of information. It was so easy to get lost in the sensations and just react. I had lost hours just studying my clothes.

Small wonder vampires hid away in small dark lairs. Any surprises must be overwhelming. So much easier to control yourself without them.

This was going to be so much worse than I anticipated. I can feel the alignment change item around my waist and wasn't even sure if it was working. If it was... Just how bad was the information overload for normal vampires? Small wonder they end up chaotic. I can easily see how just rampaging would get addictive.

Fortunately I have always despised addictions. One of my core principles was to be independent. It was why I had made a bargain with a god and drove me to become a vampire. If need be I'll resurrect myself and then turn myself into a lich.

Feeling the magic in my belt encouraging my determination I realized why it wasn't working. Vampires were immune to most mental effects. Despite it being a curse it seems to be doing nothing more than providing morale support. I don't bother removing the belt though. It's better than nothing.

I can see why so many vampires, at least the ones who aren't rabid animals, tend to be so polite. Manners provide a set of guidelines you can fall back on to figure out what is acceptable and if ingrained deep enough may even be enough to restrain more impulsive acts. Too bad I never cared much for them.

At least it wasn't all in vain. I had managed to become a vampire lord. Sunlight itched and suppressed a few of my new powers, but didn't do much else. Running water, garlic, mirrors? All perfectly fine. I can eat garlic bread while sunbathing in a swimming pool all day if I want. I don't, but only because garlic just tastes wrong ever since I've become lizard.

I'm stronger, faster and in so many ways just better than before. Yet I also can tell I've lost something. It's a subtle thing. If I hadn't been on the look out for something like it I might well have missed it completely.

I seem to have become a complete sociopath.

I thought I was a sociopath before. My willingness to slaughter people, to kidnap and sacrifice them seemed pretty solid evidence. But I had standards, very low ones, but some.

It was obvious looking back at some of my previous choices. Small inefficiencies I had accepted because the alternative had been distasteful. Extreme experimentation, torturous training methods and other means of securing myself all ignored since it would produce so much misery. Even large scale raids to secure the best subjects to spawn hadn't been conducted for the chaos it would leave behind.

None of which I seem to care about any more.

I don't immediately start rampaging about. I'm much too cautious even for my new impulses to prod me into action so easily. But I start planning.

Taking over Altumbel had shown me just how easy it was to take over an entire country. Sure I had taken over Orlumbor, but it was a single island and only had a single town.

It wasn't even that it represented a vast gain. The Mere of Dead Men, after I had expanded it, had roughly the same about of territory. The Tunlands, while it wasn't conquered yet, was exponentially larger.

It was more the fact that it was an officially recognized nation. Altumbel isn't even important. It's fall though will make political waves. Especially as people panic over the same happening to them. I have a cover story in place being backed by the Taestarrs yet I no longer care if it works. On some level I even want it to fail. To have people know it was me.

It was a heady feeling. Knowing that you just changed the political landscape of the world. Or at least a continent. I liked it. I wanted more.

I almost move right then. Only that fact that I decided to check my notes to help pick a target gave me pause. Then I found a list. A list of beings that I needed to be very very careful of. I still almost went ahead.

Except... they were my initial reasons for laying low. And none of them have vanished. Thay, Larloch, Twisted Rune, Shades. The list went on and on. The world is positively filled with terrifying beings. And getting destroyed by one of them would make turning into a vampire completely pointless.

It's nice to see my original plans stood up to my changed perspective based solely on logic. It was validation in a way that I was making the right choice. Frustrating. But it seems I'll need to be patient a bit longer.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Wish spells, despite how often I use them, are not cheap. So when I realize just how many ideas I have that require profligate use of said spell I decide to cheat.

A living spell is some kind of amorphous magical construct that contains the ability to repeatedly cast a single spell with cost. And I just so happen to know where one that holds a Wish spell exists.

It's a sad story too. One of Halaster's less useful, but very eager apprentices reduced to nothing but a resource. Eventually she escaped and hid away, living each day in terror that he'll find her and enslave her again.

I might have a few details off, but evidently I was close enough. Jhesiyra Kestelharp had apparently done it to herself in an attempt to flee. She was fairly insane by the time I found her, but more than willing to work with me in return for rescue and protection. The degree of fear she exhibited was a bit unnerving. Still, she was much too useful to ignore.

Halaster was even more insane than she was, childish and switching between tantrums and moments of brilliance. He was very upset I rescued Jhesiyra. Luckily I had used a minion to conduct the actual rescue and his homing spell killed him instead of me.

How did that even work?

He didn't stop either. Jhesiyra was now living in R'yleh with me and Halaster kept sending spell probes and random monsters at us. So I returned the favor.

I opened a gate from the Elemental Plane of Fire into the volcanic shaft at the heart of his dungeon. Besides the host of creatures that came through I thoroughly filled in a large portion of the place with tons of lava.

Surprisingly that worked. I was gearing up for an all out war when my scrying reported Halaster was busy rebuilding Undermountain and cackling about how it'll be better than ever. Hopefully he's forgotten about me completely.

Jhesiyra found it hysterical. She was also incredibly loyal. Which makes sense since she is still scared that Halaster will pop out and snatch her at any moment.

At least I now have a steady supply of Wish spells.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Wishes it seems are an ephemeral thing. Not easily quantifiable nor so easily guided. Despite Jhesiyra's enthusiastic aid the results were... less than ideal.

She tried. Over and over again. She just... was easily distracted. Halaster had really done a number on her. Her mind was practically fractured with her emotions swinging about wildly. She was also incredibly easily distracted. Even stray thoughts could cause her to zone out.

It also turns out Wish spells are a bit more complicated than I realized since I hadn't cast any myself. They require a huge amount of knowledge to use the way I wanted. Which makes me wonder about the Baatezu I've been dealing with. Did they just know that much or had others made requests like mine before?

Between the two issue I lost an amazing number of test subjects. It was clear I was never going to be able to trust her with more delicate work. At least on anything I can't afford to make a number of attempts at.

Still eventually am able to successfully augment all the animals I'm breeding. Improving speed, strength, birth rates and other aspects. It's frankly astounding how far they can be pushed if things like their diet, health and lifespan aren't limiting factors anymore.

Once they were done I show her my armor trolls. My idea is rather than a single unique phenomena of the Mere of Dead Men they'll represent a new type of undead that arose in the aftermath of the Time of Troubles. Which given the appearance of darktentacles seems perfectly reasonable. The fact that they're actually trolls and animated by morgh should throw off most divination spells.

I realize it wasn't even efficient at this point. I was attempting to get clever with something that essentially required brute force. If I ever had to unleash hordes of zombies, the fact that they looked different would likely not slow my enemies down for long. And while the Wishes no longer cost me anything, it still took time to set up new groups. I was also sacrificing quite a bit of combat potential in return for mere aesthetics.

I just didn't care. I enjoyed the idea of confusing people on a grand scale. I was having way too much fun to bother with pure cold logic. In an abstract way it was interesting finding myself making the same choices, but this time for completely different reasons. It's comforting in a way to find myself not changing much at all.

For Echidna I changed the armored trolls to brass dragon scales despite the location. Immunity to fire is much more important than acid. Besides, brass is still mostly copper.

I also style their armor along the lines of the ancient egyptians, although I doubt they ever wore armor as heavy as the one I made. A metal headdress, full mask, scale mail tunic and guards for the arms, legs and neck.

I also switch out their equipment for a khopesh and large shield. The khopesh stats are much lower than the fine-tuned stinger it had been using, but it wasn't like I really expected much from them against Tuigan. They would serve better as bait and clean up than shock troops.

The best part is since the kobolds are sorcerers they can organize and command the resulting zombies so they are more than just a mob. Sadly I don't have any other groups set up to be able to do the same. Which really just means I need more groups.

It's nice when things work out.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The biggest change though, even more than becoming a vampire, was the Windwalker Amulet. I had initially been torn about interfering. While stopping Liriel would leave the drow trapped in the Underdark, it would also draw the attention of two goddesses.

In the end I went ahead. It's a decision I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have made before becoming a vampire, but if I spend the rest of my unlife second guessing myself I might as well not have bothered. Besides deities had been crippled by Ao's proclamation had I was likely a match for many of them. More, any that came after me became vulnerable.

I made it quick. A scry and die ambush later and I had the Windwalker Amulet in hand. And to take away any temptation, I promptly destroyed it.

Sorry goddesses, but I do not want drow on the surface. I have enough competition as it is. Besides, the way later editions of the game had tried to make more monster races neutral had always annoyed me. When King Obould moves to establish his orcish kingdom I plan on crushing it.


	26. Dragon's Bane

Chapter 26 Dragon's Bane

While tactically destroying the Windwalker Amulet is a good move, strategically it did present a problem. That being that I now have two churches after me. Again.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a few weeks after that my scry network reveals more bad news. Tchazzar, the giant red dragon that appeared in Chessenta, killed and ate the other two dragons that had appeared. Upon which he exploded and Tiamat was reborn. Which means I now have three deities not happy with me.

Tiamat's possibly more powerful than before too. The first thing she did upon being reborn is challenge Gilgeam a second time. This time she managed to kill him. And after being freed from the oppression of Gilgeam's former church, she has a massive population base.

Not even Mulharond's invasion is likely to end her support. Sure they oppose her faith, but the people have plenty of practice at hiding their beliefs. And being invaded by foreigners isn't going to make them eager to convert.

With multiple enemies I need to weaken them as quickly as possible. Fortunately Lolth's drow are largely confined to the Underdark and Eilistree is considered good. Which means she might not be trying to hunt me down. If I'm lucky.

Still, I can only afford to really focus on one enemy at a time and Tiamat's victory was Pyrrhic in that it opened the way for Mulharond to invade. And while Mulharond is attempting to conquer as much territory as possible, the area of the Wizard's Reach is likely to survive due to the presence of Thay.

Which means I have to do something about it. Although I was going to have to be careful. After all I had just managed to make Algarond neutral. The Simbul had been a bit leery, but my gift of a copy of Alaunghaer's Triptych had convinced her. She really is like a kid in candy store when it comes to magic.

Which is good since I didn't have time to move slowly. Not if I didn't want Thay to secure the area while Mulharond was busy. My solution, and a subtle taunting to Tiamat, was to use the four black dragon corpses. In such an isolated area it wouldn't be hard to take over and territorial instinct would explain how fiercely they defend the area.

Unlike the pair of blue dragons I decided that all of the black dragons would be set up similarly. Not to say they'd be simple builds. Instead of being specialized I wanted them all to be versatile. Unfortunately the black dragons were only half the size of the blue dragons, greatly restricting what I could fit inside.

Which is why besides a pair bone nagas and necrosis carnexes grafted to the inside they only carried a graveyard sludge. The acidskulls were all held in an extradimensional pocket. Wanting a bit more versatility I had turned them into hivenests for swamp striders, although it wasn't visible under the armor glamours.

I also add a few magic items. The first few, an orb of storms, eversoaking sponge and decanter of endless water, were to provide some versatility. The next were a pair of rings that could cast Mindfog and Cloudkill. Combined with the densely overlapping layer of Symbols of Discord, Fear, Insanity, Hopelessness and Persuasion, anything mentally vulnerable would be quickly overwhelmed. I even made sure the bone nagas inside had plenty of illusion and debuff spells to make it worse.

The last pair of items were an improved Bowl of Water Elemental Command and a Pool of Endless Froglings trap gate. The Pool summoned a horde of tiny elementals which were individually pathetically weak, but burst into clouds of poisonous gas upon death. Meanwhile the lone nine foot water elemental can serve as a decent distraction for the froglings.

The bowl was created with an extended spell so elementals summoned would last a full three minutes instead of a the barely over a minute it originally did. A necessity for the dragons to use them at any kind of distance. Both provide a way for the dragon to hide while constantly wearing down enemies.

The bowl was originally set up to use only the decanter. I had an idea though and quickly added a small enchanted attachment holding a Prestidigitation. The spell was able to season food, which included salt. Which meant I could use it to create salt water. Instantly doubling the size of my water elementals.

As a small tribute to the grell next door I have the dragon's horns replaced with the same lightning cannon I use with the Stormguards. Automated and manned separately, it gives each dragon two additional attacks. And while two Scorching Rays aren't normally that useful, they are when they completely bypass spell resistance.

By far the dragons most direct attack though is it's bite. Not only are several Symbols of Weakness carved on the inside, many of it's teeth are heavily enchanted. The larger fangs are enchanted to automatically grapple anyone being bit using a heavily modified Evard's Black Tentacles. The rest are animated as a swarm of wounding black dragonbone daggers. A permanent Blood Star where it's tonsils used to be made all the wounds much more serious. And a single Symbol of Death quickly finishes off anything sufficiently weakened.

I'd rather they never get into a direct fight though. They don't have nearly enough necrosis carnexes for me to feel comfortable of their survival in a large battle. Not that they should. That's what armies of minions are for.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Delthuntle, one of the three major cities along the Wizards' Reach, has been hit the hardest by the destruction of Altumbel. They were also feeling distinctly vulnerable due to moves by Thay and the invasion of Unther. They were more than willing to accept rulership by a family of black dragons.

It was the only city I left intact. The other two cities already had ties to either Tiamat or Thay. Besides, destroying them would show Delthuntle that they made the right choice. I also didn't feel like trying to control more humans than I need too.

Although intact might be misleading. I still ended up tearing down almost a third of the city. But it was so I could use the space along the river. Instead of dozens of normal sized buildings I used a series of massive ziggurats.

The ziggurats had plenty of internal room, especially since it extended downwards several stories. The top though was a massive eerie devoted to raising black wyvern drakes. A few dozen of them would be more than enough to secure the city even without the dragons.

I want a loyal minion race though so I decide to spread the grippli. Besides, I didn't like the fact that an entire loyal race was only in one location and so easily made extinct. It's not like I had any issue creating enough new infants for them to flourish.

I create an offshoot this time. Rather than the chameleon skin these new grippli are poisonous. Their skin secretes a potent poison that locks muscles and essentially lowers dexterity. Although I do make sure the poison isn't contact activated. That would have caused way too much collateral damage.

Seeing the brightly colored grippli moving through the brown stone buildings inspires me to name the new country Ryloth.

Since I didn't want my new country to keep pushing back the borders of the Yuirwood I needed an alternative source of materials. I also needed material for ships since I plan for Ryloth to challenge both Mulharond and Thay at sea.

My solution came from all things a small garden I was tearing down. The family had a small clump of bamboo and I suddenly remembered that bamboo technically counts as a grass. Now to see if a Rod of Wonder considers it a grass as well.

A few minutes later I felt like dancing. If I wasn't a giant lizard and knew how to dance I might even have done so. The best part? Wheat, corn and rice also count as grass.

With Jhesiyra's aid I was quickly able to create a new species of giant bamboo. Dark gray stems filled with a light spongy material similar to rosecork and incredibly strong and water resistant. Plant Growth gave it an initial boost to reach the first dozen or so feet, then a Rod of Wonder pushed it past the normal maximum of eighty feet to almost twice that.

Able to grow an entire forest in minutes, it's much harder to harvest and process the bamboo. Especially since I only grow it that way deep underground inside faerezz lined caverns. No need to provide Thay with any advantages.

The ziggurats did more than just contain the facilities to grow and process the bamboo though. Plantations for every kind of edible grass were grown. And even better the parts that weren't edible to people, were to animals. Which means there was more than enough to raise a population of both dire moles and dungeon bred dire apes. Both suitably adjusted by Jhesiyra.

Both of those creatures require more than just plants. Thankfully they're both insectivores and so can be fed the same giant termites the grippli breed for themselves. After all they need to recycle all the sawdust somehow.

I intend Ryloth to be very focused on ship building. To encourage that mindset I built a series of massive canals throughout the city. Delthuntle, along with the other two former cities, were built on a river. It was simple enough to build a small dam and then create a system of canals for the water to flow through. As I expanded and reclaimed the land the other cities used to stand on I can expand the canal network as well.

However I needed to provide my new nation a means of defending itself. Not just a few drakes and false dragons. I needed to provide them an army.

My solution was slaughterstone behemoths. Not normal ones either. Heavily modified and stylized they don't even look like a construct. Instead it resembles a massive stone mantis shrimp with four arms. It's taller than a normal behemoth because I placed a hollow compartment in the center along with small vents. On top of that I created a large slab of armor that it essentially wore as a shell to protect it from every side but the front.

The center of the behemoth was filled with a Pool of Endless Froglings. The vents would allow them to endlessly crawl out from the shell. I had essentially created a swarmhost.

While I did debate for a bit on whether to switch the swarmhost to Endor and the topiary guardians to Ryloth I decided against it. It'd work far better to just have the two nations closely ally with each other as my chuul expand.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

In further support towards targeting Tiamat's power base I decided I needed to weaken Unther. Mulharond will do their best to crush her faith as soon as they took over so the sooner than happens the better. Besides it seems kind of poetic to use my false dragons against the dragon goddess.

I select the Uthangol Mountains for my next place for a few reasons. The first being how close it is to the Green Fields, the bread basket of Unther. The vast majority of Unther's crops grow in a fairly small region next to those mountains. The second reason is it didn't have nearly as terrifying inhabitants as the Smoking Mountains. Only orcs, ogres and goliaths as opposed to red dragons, geriviars and possibly more. The last reason was it was centrally located. Not only does it border Unther and is next to Mulharond, it also is fairly close to the Great Rift.

I install the animated body of Shimmergloom in the mountain. I know exactly what I was aiming for and a shadow dragon was perfect for leading such a set up.

The first thing step of course is the dragon. Thankfully he's as large as the blue dragons so I can stuff enough undead inside that I feel comfortable of his chances in a fight. Like Echidna, he has the full complement of Symbols, but the main focus is on Symbols of Spell Loss and Weakness, having a full dozen of each.

Offensively I create three extradimensional pockets. The first is in the throat and holds thirty animated weapons. Each one a +1 flying brilliant energy, enervating longsword. Very few things can survive losing thirty levels at once.

The second pocket is in the chest and holds watchghosts. Specifically that of wolves since I liked the look. The third was just a but further down and contained a hundred undead shadows all bound by shadow asp venom. Between the two the dragon will be obscured by large glowing wolves that flicker though a literal cloud of shadows.

Still defensive measures against undead will also stop most of what I've given it so far. As a trump card I embed a Mirror of Opposition into each of his palms. It should be more than enough to give him an edge against any adventuring group or small party that does challenge him.

Since climactic battles don't really fit what I'm going for I also start carving out a labyrinth inside the mountains and setting up a portal network. The portals will all have different triggers, but one they will all have is that they have to be shrouded in darkness. Bind a dozen watchghosts to the location and it'll be safe enough. Especially since the entire labyrinth will be covered in various Symbols.

Since I don't want the place to be lifeless I set up several colonies of myconids. They in turn raise and take care of a number of other plants such as gas spores, fetid fungi and phantom fungi.

The final creatures I add are cloakers. The flying creatures with their long rang debuffs seem like a perfect complement to the other defenses. The best part is I only need to capture a single cloaker lord and he naturally draws normal cloakers to him.

I'd be upset that I can't spawn more if it wasn't what Mindrape revealed. Cloaker lords and cloakers are asexual and only the lords can reproduce. This do this by sacrificing themselves to create a brood of new cloakers and a single new lord. Which means lords can't be replaced.

The best part is that newborn cloakers, while half-sized, are mature. They just need to grow a bit. Which means they are tough enough to survive being rapidly aged. And a newborn lord is small enough to create spawn with.

Just in case I tattoo the young cloaker lord heavily before feeding him to the deepspawn. His tail and bite are both enchanted, gaining sharptooth and speed. I add a bevy of fairly standard buffs. But my favorite are the bracers of armor with the hamatula barbs and gnashing properties. If only because it's fun to see the faces and spikes ripple into being.

The best part is with the ability to spawn my own lords and cloakers it doesn't take long to build a city. To provide them a resource base and also in order to damage the Green Fields I decide to have them raise rhinoceroses.

Rhinos are almost ideal for me. Medium size so I can use the skulls. With the woodling template and a few adjustments it's skin is incredibly strong. They are also very aggressive and after being modified their horns went from being dangerous to incredibly lethal. With the abundant food and lack of natural predators they're population will explode. Especially with their shorter lifespans.

However cloakers make much better skirmishers than soldiers so for my army I go with sphinxes. They're a common predator in the area and best of all, like medusa have an easy way of controlling them. There are four types of sphinxes. Gynosphinxes are the only female version and they are highly sought after by the other three. Best of all one of the types is almost feral.

It wasn't hard at all to track down and capture a few gyno and hieraco sphinxes. The hieracosphinx is the one I intend to use as soldiers so they're the one I modify. Rapid aging, faster growth rates, improved natural weapons. I even managed to incorporate minotaur blood to give it a horns as well as raise it's strength.

Perhaps the greatest change is to it's mentality. Rather than seeking a mate, they behave much like lions. Except in reverse. I also add a few extra behavioral triggers to make it easier to condition them.

The gynosphinx in comparison had very little work done and most of it was tattoos. The first was of course a permanent Domination along with a Memory Modify and Charm. Even if control is cut off, she'll return for orders.

The others all provide additional spells she can cast. Complementing her support role she has Dimension Door, Silence, Invisibility and and extended Enlarge Sphinx that she can all cast several times a day.

Their are also a few defensive tattoos. Bonuses to saves, charisma and constitution. The very last tattoo is a Command Undead with several quirks to make the spell signature unique. That last tattoo is necessary since each gynosphinx is also going to be given a morgh tattooed to be particularly vulnerable to that exact Command Undead.

Jhesiyra was more than happy to help me create another type of armored troll. We must have created over a dozen versions before I was satisfied with how it looked. Ancient Untherans didn't use metal armor. So since I had to create my own I went fancy. My fake ancient Untheran zombies were all armored like Gilgamesh from Fate/Stay Night. Although I did have to come up with a helmet. For that I used a skull mask and simple cap, since it was close to what the Chosen of Gilgeam wears.

Although I don't equip them the same. Instead using what I learned from the automatons and goliaths I add a very large morningstar that is incredibly dense and deals an impressive 4d6 damage. Completing the Gilgamesh image, I switched them to gold dragon blood.

I even make them hivenests for scarab beetles. Which is appropriate give the egyptian-like feel of the region and in theme since it will look like a shower of gems exploding from the corpses.

My only regret is the set up didn't have a means of directly combating high level opponents. Sure they won't fall easily, but that's due to the labyrinth and wearing down enemies. Oh well, I'll just have to make up for it later.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

My next move as to the Tortured Lands. It borders the Anauroch, Ride and Vaasa, none of which are current strongholds of Tiamat. However Damara is already under the control of Gareth Dragonsbane, paladin of Bahamut. It's only a time before she makes her move. And while I don't remember anything specific, it feels right.

The reason for the Tortured Lands has other reasons too. The first being that Zhengyi is in Vaasa and he is definitely on my list of those to avoid. Thankfully he doesn't pay much attention to Faerun. I can wait until Gareth destroys him before making any moves.

The other reason is in preparation for the City of Shade. I know they eventually show up. When they do I want to make sure they aren't in a position to just run over their enemies. Since I'm hoping the Spellplague doesn't occur I can't exactly rely on it to stop them.

The Tortured Land is an area of old volcanic formations. Despite how old they are the landscape seems to be made of steep hills, jagged walls and broken columns. The patches of soil are fertile, but small and thin due to all the volcanic glass.

The area is isolated too. Walled in on every side by mountains or desert. Only a large gap to the south exists and barbarian tribes protect the plains it leads too. The only inhabits are packs of gnolls who savagely compete with each other for food.

Given how insular the barbarians are I doubt anyone will even notice the loss of the gnolls. Not that anyone who does will thank me. After all those who know about varags usually don't have a good opinion of them.

Varags are hobgoblins that have been magically crossbred with dire wolves a long time ago. They aren't very intelligent, but make up for it with their strength and speed. They are also frequently used by hobgoblins as shock troops since they tend to act like barely trained war hounds.

They also bred quickly, having small litters up to twice a year and growing twice as fast as a human. The only drawback to all these advantages was their enormous appetite. Varags eat enormous amounts of food and can go feral if not fed enough. Which is one of the reasons they aren't more common.

I actually noticed them when I checking up on Pyre Citadel. The hobgoblins there had a pack and I had gotten curious. They were much better than the gnolls I had been considering since they didn't worship any demons. Instead, like their dire wolf ancestors, they don't seem to think much about the future at all.

The addition of ogre blood doesn't help that tendency and minotaur just made it worse. In fact the larger varags behave more like particularly bright dogs than people. At least the woodling template makes them calmer and easier to train.

On the other hand it ramps up their appetite significantly. It's a bit reassuring to know that any varags that leave are more than likely to simply starve to death. After all consuming weeks worth of rations every day isn't normally sustainable.

It was the Craaghoran Giants that gave me me the idea for how to fully flesh out the rest of the group. It was a shame they were too large to copy and breed too slowly to try and turn into minions. Still, I make do.

A simulacrum of a delver provides the necessary stone working abilities. Especially when backed by a bone nagas with a number of earth and crafting spells. Between Stone Shape, Fabricate, Hardening and Greater Augment Object I have no doubt obsidian will be able to substitute for steel.

They'll need it too for the rest of what I plan. The creatures I plan on them raising as war beasts are more supplemental in natural than shock troops. After all I have the varags for that role. Rather than disabling high level opponents I'll settle for disarming them.

Which is why the creatures all have abilities that can target equipment instead of people. Rust monsters are kept more for the powder that can be harvested from the antennae. They're raised in large farms and fed with Walls of Iron.

The other creature is sadly much too violent and sadistic to be use used so freely. So mummified destrauchan now stand guard. It's a shame to only be able to use copies. Especially since I couldn't locate one that was more powerful without also growing large enough a deepspawn couldn't consume it. Still, their ability to selectively target materials is a powerful one and worth the extra work.

Since bats seem to be the most common creature in these lands I decide to use them for the varags. Dungeon bred dire bats were small enough to be used as stone beasts, but too heavy to be useful for anything. A little work from Jhesiyra though and they soon were adapted for running and climbing with only a bit of gliding left over. Add in how it's saliva causes wounding and how tough yet thin it's hide is and they were a decent choice.

However the issue now was of leadership. I needed someone to coordinate and organize the varag packs. To direct them. Also someone to take charge of the bat ranches, which required long term planning.

I really wanted to use my last dragon and set up more wyvern drakes. However there is absolutely no way I was going to do anything to draw the attention of Zhengyi or the flights of dragons currently in Vaasa. I also wasn't willing to use obviously large powerful and more importantly unique undead anywhere near the epic level necromancer.

In the end I went with hobgoblins. They were intelligent, well organized and had a good working history of varags. Best of all they seemed to be able to work well under other beings that have proven themselves to them. Which Mindrape nicely takes care of.

To provide leadership I went back to the Craaghoran giants. Best of all that only required me to find and kill one of them. At least at first. Sadly Jhesiyra still doesn't have the best attention span. Which means I ended up hunting all the giants in the area down for their children.

Covered with buffs and other boosts from an array of tattoos the kids are small to spawn but still tough enough to survive being aged. I make sure the defensive boosts are all very high especially since he may end up fighting a dragon at some point.

Offensively I swap out his hands for ones that have fang dragon blood applied. I like the damage boost, but not how it makes them susceptible to dragonrage. Nor do I need to open another connection to Tiamat.

The claws have also been improved as if using the dungeon bred template and then heavily enchanted. Add in Sharptooth and each claw deals 12d6 damage before strength or the +5 enhancement. Speed doubles the potential overall damage. Although the defending property might be overkill considering how many other defensive boosts I already applied.

While it wasn't worth challenging the numerous dragons for the skies, I wasn't prepared to abandon them completely. Since I was already breeding bats, I stuck with the dire bat. With Jhesiyra's aid I created my own version of the guardian template for them.

The bat did look a bit odd with larger eyes with draconic pupils, but it meant it possessed darkvision out to a full hundred and twenty feet as well as low light vision four times stronger than an elf. The best part though was blindsight. Since dire bats are already adapted for blindsight, it extended the range massively. I can think of only a handful of creatures with a sonar range of over a hundred feet.

For riders I transported a few families of xvarts. Interestingly enough I haven't noticed any xvarts outside of the small cluster I located initially. And since they can naturally communicate with bats, they make perfect aerial scouts. Although I did have to Mindrape them in order to flip their attitude to prefer serving larger creatures. Can't have my minions killing each other now.

With that I was done. I felt confident once Tiamat came into the open I'd be able to crush her forces.


	27. Dragon's Claw

Chapter 27 Dragon's Claw

Annoyed at not being able to use him and wanting to place my last dragon, I moved Icingdeath over to the Cold Wood. It wasn't just the name that drew me. It was also almost perfect for me.

It was far enough from civilization that few people paid attention to it, being sheltered from the south by the Moonwood. While the Night Trees might be even better located it already had something powerful lurking there. Even it's aura was enough to keep things from living in the Night Trees. The Cold Wood in the other hand only had some orcs and ettins.

From the north it was sheltered by the Druar wood. The giant clans from the mountains never went further than they needed too. However it also still close enough to Mithril Hall that when King Obould makes his move I'll be able to respond immediately.

The first thing I did was augment Icingdeath, whom I dubbed Frostburn. The name seemed appropriate since I made sure that the bone nagas inside knew a number of fire spells along with cold spells. I also added an invisible fireshield as well as several fire protection enchantments. No way was my dragon going to be weak against the very elements he weilds.

For a breath weapon kept the pocket of frostskulls, but I was also inspired by the Ring of Telekinesis. Instead it can cast Boreal Wind. It allows spell resistance and deals less damage than a Cone of Cold, but covers a massive area. No dragon normally effects an area a thousand feet long. The duration just makes it even more useful.

White dragons are much more bestial that other kinds though so I focused most of my efforts on his physical attacks. Sharptooth was a given as was a Might Fist enchantment that applies Speed to all attacks. Another set of tattoos cast Keen and Greater Magic Fang whenever it roars in challenge.

Individually each was enchanted with Frost, Corrosive, Screaming and Shocking. Anything to squeeze out a bit more damage. The claws further had Defending, Cursespewing and Enervating on them. In contrast the tail has Ghoststrike, Undead Bane, Disruption and a modified Smoking that looks like a blizzard. His jaws had Dessicating and Force while the wings have Dismisser, Shattermantle and Defending.

With a very formidable leader I now needed an army. The first unit was going to be the basis for my setup. Icegaunts are a type of undead that have minor druidic powers and a connection to the wilderness. Like vampires they spawn more of themselves and retain control of them. Which meant I only needed to find and capture one in order to create as many as I needed.

Like morghs, controlling tattoos ensured their loyalty to my bone naga. After that I add the slew of standard buffs and defenses. After all I can't have my generals dying too easily now.

Generals of course need troops and I had an amazing army for them to lead. After all why not fight fire with fire? Well orcs. And not exactly orcs. But wortlings were close enough for me.

It was a good thing orcwort trees breed so quickly and easily, otherwise I never would have been able to find enough for Jhesiyra to successfully alter. I stole an idea from my previous life and decided to create sterile versions of the trees. Not that I stopped there.

The massive, mobile trees were tweaked for maximum crop yield. They were then modified to extend their control, allowing them to organize up to a hundred wortlings at a time. Since they were sterile, it was much easier to adjust the wortlings to make them much more dangerous. Stronger, faster, tougher. I made them as powerful as I felt I could push them.

Improving the wortlings was made all the easier since apparently dragons really can breed with just about anything. It was odd seeing a half-white dragon tree, but the fact that I could pass most of the improvements to the wortlings was amazing. It was also interesting to see the fake orcs covered in what appeared to be crude glass armor.

While it wasn't worth trying to tattoo the wortlings, the orcworts definitely were worth the cost. Even something as simple as a Sustenance enchantment made them much more dangerous. Add in a few defensive buffs and they became almost unstoppable.

To avoid wasting time and repeating work I create two parent trees. They are both bound to my dragon and can naturally produce the seeds that grow into my sterile orcwort trees. With some insectile instincts added, the sterile trees will act as drones for their 'queen'.

To fully flesh out the military I was creating I added white wyvern drakes. Able to serve as mounts for my icegaunts as well as take the role of aerial artillery they were going to be the hammer to the anvil made of wortlings.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Clearing out the Cold Wood took less than a week and most of that was hunting down everyone who was hiding. For the most part it was boring grunt work, well suited for my new orcworts. The only surprise was the discovery that a wizard laired up the forest, living inside a Harry Potter style tent.

While it was a bit sad my minions killed him, at least they didn't eat his body. Because that would have been a horrible waste. Tulrun was a researcher who specialized in constructs. Not only that but he managed several extraordinary breakthroughs when it came to flesh golems.

The reason I needed his body was his notes positively sucked. He didn't have nice, organized research notes. No. He had a gigantic diary full of ramblings and ideas. Worse I think the isolation broke him since he kept referring to his daughters. Which just happen to have the same names as the three flesh golems my troops had destroyed.

At least his spawn weren't as crazy as he was. Sadly they didn't have his memories so couldn't explain his logic, but they could translate his diary into the notes I wanted. And I suppose it wasn't completely his fault seeing as how Tulrun had managed to create intelligent, loyal flesh golems that looked just like a normal person. People treating their pets like people, constructs that look and act real is a step up from that.

Not that he wasn't crazy. Setting up in the middle of nowhere and then occasionally killing the random explorer for parts to make his daughters was so crude. He could have moved to Calimshan and just bought more than enough slaves to meet his needs. It's almost like it's a prerequisite to isolate yourself somewhere in order to make breakthroughs in magic.

That or Mystra just really likes crazy people. Which... I could see. Karsus, arguably the greatest mage ever, tried to kill her and died in the attempt. Sammaster, one of her Chosen, founded the Cult of the Dragon. And as much as I love the Simbul as a character, she is not very stable. Hell Elminster, often portrayed as one of the nicest of her Chosen, has more than a few serious flaws.

Hmm. If Mystra hadn't died I might be tempted to apply for a slot. Somehow I don't see Midnight being so understanding towards me.

Still, with the last of my dragons placed and a contingency set up against a future orc kingdom it was time to move on. Thankfully one of the things he had researched had inspired me. A variant of flesh golem fashioned entirely from snakes. Given how vehemently yuan-ti and nagas hate serpentflesh golems it may even explain his move so far north.

Besides, it seems a shame that I don't have any green dragons. The Forest of Wyrms has a reputation for being incredibly dangerous due to a large population of green dragons. Which made it perfect for me to obtain some corpses.

One of the best parts of being an epic level spellcaster is the sheer amount of resources I can throw at a problem. A widened Located Create combined with multiple teleports allow me to each search the entire forest in an afternoon. And since I was hiding under an Invisibility, Silence, Trackless Step and Mindblank combination no one realized I was there.

There were more dragons than I anticipated. While rumors had mentioned outrageous numbers like a score of dragons simple logistics should have shown how impossible that was. Except I did find a score of dragons. Sure, it only took a few quick scrys to find out most were children, but six green dragons and two red dragons was more than I was prepared to face.

Fortunately the dragons all seem to rely on numbers and brute strength than magic to defend themselves. Not only did they fail to detect me, but I easily found their lairs. Thankfully the pair of red dragons seem to ignore the forest, keeping to the small volcano and flying elsewhere to go hunting.

Ambushing dragons in their lair was surprisingly easy. They were so arrogant that all their defenses were geared towards other dragons and similarly sized beings. If it wasn't for their senses they'd have likely died in their sleep.

Not that waking up helped any. Against a half dozen dragons and the possible aid of two more I went all out. I brought over all nine of my dragons. I also brought in an entire company of my Eldar. I wasn't taking any chances with that many dragons. I planned to crush them.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I should have known Beshaba would stick her nose in. It's the only reason I can think of that an entire flight of dragons would just so happen to appear while I was securing the corpses of the green dragons.

The assault had gone well. My black dragons divided up and tanked the breath weapons for four of the assault teams. Shimmergloom brought his target down with a single breath as it was completely drained of levels. The others did equally well.

It was nice seeing such an elaborate plan being executed so flawlessly. All six of the green dragons had been killed within a minute, completely overwhelmed. I had sent the dragons back at that point. After all they were needed to maintain control over their territories. I had also collected the bodies and sent out the Eldar to try and capture the young.

I was still waiting when there was a very familiar explosion. A fierce roar, the beating of wings. Sounds I had just heard. Dragons.

What the hell? I quickly send out a Projected Image to scout. The sounds were all coming from a single direction. Worse it wasn't the volcano, which means there was still a chance of getting caught between the pair of red dragons there and whatever dragons just showed up.

What I see freezes me in shock. That's... a lot of dragons.

Red and not green like I had kind of assumed. Maybe even black because of the High Moor. I'd think it was just some that I missed that lived in the volcano except it wasn't alone. There was an entire flight of dragons. And following the red dragon were three white dragons.

What the hell was going on? There's nowhere for a white dragon to live nearby!

Not that it matters. Regardless of how it's happening I need to respond. The dragons are laying waste to my Eldar. They hadn't been meant to fight dragons head on. In the face of multiple breath weapons they just melted.

I couldn't just leave though. Rather I refused too. There were six green dragon corpses laying right there. No way was I going to lose them.

Besides... this is an opportunity. So many lovely dragons. It'd be a shame to just ignore them.

I teleport back and rattle off a list of buffs and wait the precious seconds it takes for my bone nagas to layer the spells on me. I keep an eye on the scrying mirror the entire time. As soon as they finished I teleported to the spot I selected.

Only two hundred feet up I was well within range several of the dragon's blindsight. My sudden appearance along with haste meant none of them could respond in time though.

I dive, plummeting down to slam my lance into the base of the skull of a massive white dragon. I bite back a scream as my arm breaks from the impact and spit out a word. The contingency kicks in and the world around me freezes.

I grunt as I drop a few Delayed Blast Fireballs and get ready as the spell ends. As soon as it does I activate Lutzaen's Frequent Jaunt, shifting two hundred feet above my next target. The sudden appearance of numerous fireballs scorches the wings of a second white dragon and it crashed into a tree. With that distraction I manage to repeat my dive, killing the last of the white dragons.

The sole red dragon turn towards me and unleashes his breath weapon. It was all I could do not to laugh as I trigger Energy Absorption and feel both my arms abruptly straiten as they healed. I love predictable opponents.

I shift upwards again and once again dive. This dragon isn't caught by surprise and while I hit him, it doesn't seem like he's too hurt. He takes one look around and turns to flee. I hadn't realized red dragons ever retreated. Thankfully in the forest the dragons have to move slowly with plenty of zigzagging.

I quickly start shifting after the red dragon that fled. It doesn't take long to find it. A massive hoop of metal suspended between two trees and secured by multiple branches woven together. It was a portal.

No wonder there were so many green dragons! They could leave whenever they wanted to hunt wherever the portal leads. Fortunately disabling it is easy enough. Physically blocking it with a Wall of Iron prevents it from activating again.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I call in more Eldar for support, bringing back two full legions. I also bring in Shimmergloom to help me kill the pair of red dragons in the volcano. I have no desire to be ambushed later on.

At least the dragon bodies are all gone now. I shipped them all back to R'yleh as soon as I could. The portal meant someone was keeping tabs here and might drop by at any point. If they can afford to send over a flight of dragons, who knows what they'll show up with with more preparation? In the meantime I did my best to secure the forest.

As part of securing the forest I added dread warriors. I had collected a number of Tuigan and I used the best archer as the template. The base unit was going to be scouts, skirmishers and cavalry archers. Although they didn't look it since I placed a light glamour on their armor tattoo to look like they were wearing cobra themed full plate mail.

They didn't actually ride animals, instead using the Mount spell they were tattooed with. They also had a few tattoos that let them cast spells to help with their role. Serpent Arrows, since it seemed appropriate and Wind Tunnel.

I kept the rest of the bonuses relatively light. I just didn't seem right, fourteenth level or not, to spend much on what was going to be a basic unit. The exception was the bow.

I didn't arm them with a normal bow. Instead I had one grafted in place of a hand made from bone and tendons. As a living part of the person it spawned along with him. That part I enchanted heavily. The bow itself had +1 Distance, Seeking, Speed and Splitting on it. Another tattoo added Energy Aura and Exit Wounding. And finally a grafted skin quiver generated +3 keen arrows. At least the glamours were enough to hide the fact they were actual grafts and not items.

I also place a number of bone nagas throughout the forest, although I use a unaugmented guardian naga as the base. I have their armor glamoured to make them seem alive so people don't start immediately looking for their controller. And to make sure the Yuan-ti know I don't like them, I have them all use serpentflesh golems.

While the normal serpentflesh golems are used as palanquin bearers I want more for bodyguards. Those end up based on nagathas, snake-like beings made from humans, to make their existence even more of an affront to the Yuan-ti. I pushed further than that. Six heavily sculpted homunculi were fashioned and bonded to the golem. Along with pushing it's size and toughness, they look like Yuan-ti Anathema, the leaders of their race. If I'm lucky, some of the Yuan-ti will get a stroke as they go apoplectic with rage.

While all of that was being set up I was busy analyzing the portal. It was clearly designed for a dragon to use, set high enough up that you had to fly and being over forty feet across.

What I found out was impressive. The portal was part of an entire network. Each destination required a specific key and each portal can only be used four times within a single day. I'm betting at least some of those destinations have a matching portal too. Although there is a default setting too, which I'm betting is some kind of trap.

One of the keys though was keyed to an individual. Only he can use it and I'm guessing he's the one who created or at least commissioned the portals. If a key wasn't used it acted as a trap, stripping items and dropping them off in yet another location.

Over the next few days I test out the portal and after confirming the default setting is a trap, choosing the simplest key, a command phrase. I obviously don't go myself, but send a bone naga through. A few hours later it teleports back to report the portal led to the Dragonjaw Mountains.

It also had a matching portal. Although it couldn't make it back since activating it requires a dragon's breath weapon. Inconvenient. The fact that all the other triggers remain the same though means it really is a full network. Not a local network either, but one that spanned the continent. This gets better and better.

The other destinations are much less friendly and it takes multiple trips and tests before I feel safe using them. Casting any arcane spell at the portal keys it to the Dragonspine Mountains, over by the Moonsea. Also ironically only separated from the Tortured Lands by The Ride plains. Judging from the land I'd say this is where the white and red dragons came from.

Unlike the Dragonjaws portal this one was trapped. It sends them to the Raurin desert, where blue and brown dragons lurk. It also strips them off all their items and sends them to yet another destination.

Blood ends up in the Smallteeth on the southern border of Amn. A blue dragon lairs there and ate several of my scouts. He was arrogant though and just strode through the portal. While I was caught by surprise by a hundred foot blue dragon, my troops weren't.

Sadly the dragon was right to be arrogant. He was giant, stretching out over a hundred feet. His defenses were terrifying. His spell resistance alone was a problem. Many of the Eldar's weapons just dispelled when they struck him and the bone nagas couldn't hurt him either. The few attacks that did hit were largely negated by his damage reduction if they didn't glance off his scales.

The battle raged for almost an hour. I won, but lost almost all of my Eldar. It was annoying to see them being treated as cannon fodder. In the end I ambushed him. Which was extremely irritating.

Over the following week I map out the portal network, finding it was very widespread. Most of the portals were trapped too and each used a different one way destination.

My experiments really took off when a black dragon of all things came through the portal. His reaction speed was incredible. He didn't even hesitate when he saw my army. It was impressive how quickly he flicked out a scroll of teleport.

Too bad for him I dimension locked most of the forest. The delay as he wasted time using a scroll let the Eldar move in. And while he has good reflexes, the dimension lock clearly surprised him. It made him pause long enough for them to get in several attacks.

Those were just a distraction though. After the disaster last time I brought back Shimmergloom. Lurking invisible behind the portal he was perfectly placed to ambush dragons coming through. It was terrifying to realize just how powerful the dragon was when he lost thirty levels and barely slowed down.

I won although I ended up having to enter the fight personally again. He would have likely managed to retreat otherwise. Still I know have yet another great wyrm and this time of a black dragon. Combined with the carefully preserved skeleton in one of the green dragon's hoards I now had six great wyrms, each of a different type.

Ironically the final portal destination is still keyed to him and it leads to Rethild. Rethild the massive swamp next to Halruaa which also had the Kingdom of Kethid located inside it, the largest organized group of lizardfolk in Faerun. Also my original target before Essylliss died.

Although I guess that may change now.


	28. Networking

Chapter 28 Networking

I work on securing Rethild next. As much as the other destinations tempt me, the lizardfolk there are just too potentially great a resource to ignore. Not now that I have direct access to them. I've already tested the animated skeleton of the black dragon and the portal works fine for him.

The only real drawback is now that he's dead the portal network can't be modified or expanded further. Not that the network isn't valuable as it is. It'd just be nice to have portals connecting all of my dragons to each other.

To make it easy to remember I name the dragon Kethid. I also move to take over the lizardfolk kingdom. I have a lot of fun allowing my Eldar to rampage throughout the area until it's secure. The other four black dragons makes it much easier. After all if it's one thing lizardfolk respect, it's power.

The takeover goes surprisingly smoothly. Sure I have to kill loads of troops, but once the leaders are dead they all surrender quietly. The Siv and improved lizardfolk I bring over easily accepted.

I also start a few breeding programs to start upgrading the lizardfolk. Along with the myconids I seed for farming there should soon be a population boom. On the other hand I am very thorough in hunting down and burning the bodies of every lizardking and queen. I wanted them organized and efficient, which chaotic evil leaders will not help with.

With such a large and deep swamp I incorporate the aquatic template as well. In many ways Rethild is incredibly secure. Anyone invading would need to swim and slog through mud and fens in order to get anywhere. Disease and predators take their toll. Only flying would let you bypass it, but the thick canopy would make it very hard to find anything. Especially since I started building downwards.

While the lizardfolk technically ruled here, their control was sporadic at best. Teams of hunters roamed around, following trails and killed anything they came across they didn't approve of. They didn't rule so much as establish themselves as the apex predator.

I changed that. Once in control I build a massive city. Not dense, more sprawling to keep it in harmony with nature. Slender towers, rope bridges and raised walkways. The real buildings were underground, small heavily reinforced bunkers.

Guard towers were thickly spread across the swamp, each containing an armory and facilities. Phase Doors made sure only lizardfolk could enter through the thick walls. Each one had a bone naga placed as the Watcher, using divination and permanent Rary's Telepathic Bonds to set up a very good scrying network. Redundancy is always nice and this way I can make the swamp even more secure.

The best part is just how little ecological impact all my changes made. Each Watcher knows five spells. Scry, obviously and four more that let them create the equipment needed. Fabricate, Hardening, Improved Augment Object and Petrify. The last spell was one that made a piece of wood as rigid and unyielding as stone. Permanently. Between those four spells all of my lizardfolk use mostly wood equipment.

In order to make the swamp more secure I make the top portion of some of the towers open to tasloi. The small green cat-like goblins are natural climbers and live in the canopy. They are also largely nocturnal, making nightfall even more hazardous.

Only the towers towards the edges of the swamp allow tasloi in though. While they're simply too independent to be used in any kind of battle, they make superb border guards. Ambushes, traps and just general harassment over miles and miles of swamp.

It's the tasloi that inspires me to place a simulacrum of a howler in each tower as well. Carefully modified when sculpted, the quills from the spiky monster dog can be used as barbed arrows or as small barbed javelins by the tasloi. It's also why I add a simulacrum of an umpleby. Their naturally strong long hair can be woven into rope and cloth even stronger than silk.

In return they also raise baboons for me and pay with their skulls. With a natural ability to speak with all types of monkeys, like the xvarts with rats and bats, it's well within their capabilities. And they can also use them as war beasts.

The interior towers have watchspider nests instead of tasloi. They provide a source for silk, poison and chitin. They also serve as guards, even if they aren't as aggressive or effective as tasloi. However, they can be trained to ignore lizardfolk completely. It was just too bad they weren't effective on the battlefield.

Since the spiders didn't work as a warbeast I added swordslugs. Also called metalmasters, they're essentially enormous slugs, stretching out ten feet long, that possess the ability to manipulate metal. Their abilities will wreak havoc on the battlefield, especially against enemy formations. And it was easy enough to feed them using Walls of Iron and troll meat.

To keep his hold over the kingdom Kethid needed to be powerful enough to meet any challengers head on. Towards that end I worked to make him versatile and powerful. Which is why between them, I tried to make sure the bone nagas grafted to him covered as many spells as possible. I also wanted to focus on his crafting and portal abilities. Which is why, like Echidna, he was going to have several abilities that revolved around minions.

The first thing I did was to add items to summon elementals. A Brazier of Conjuring Fire Elementals, Bowl of Water Elemental Command, Censure of Air Elemental Control and a Stone of Conjuring Earth Elementals. The first three were placed inside along with the items and bags of holding to fuel them. The stone was embedded in the palm of it's hand so it could touch the ground.

Elementals, even huge ones, won't be enough though. So I create Gem Rings, the idea for which was inspired by the Simbul's Blood Ring. Like a Drawmij's Instant Summons, but much more complex. I used it to bind an entire company of lizardfolk dread warriors. And while I had several of them made I decided to restrict it's use to once a day.

The dread warriors came inside a pair of armor plated seismosaurus skeletons. Their great strength, enormous size and ability to just crush anything they step on were all invaluable in turning them into mobile fortresses. A touch of fang dragon blood and dungeon bred meant it's tail dealt a hefty 8d10 damage.

I originally intended for them to be used as war beasts, but transportation and food made it too complicated to be worth it. I didn't want to just discard them though so I kept a small population to raise for their skeletons. After importing the bamboo I had made for Ryloth there was plenty for the to eat. They made for excellent APCs.

Not that I expected any of that to really make a difference. They were more for flavor. But gem rings can be used to summon more than just dread warriors. Which is why Kethid also had three gem rings which can each summon ten death tyrants. Although like the dread warriors I was going to restrict their use to once per day.

The final summons are four huge shield guardians. Decked out in defensive magic items they serve as powerful bodyguards. In addition to the items, they each have a familiar pouch holding a clockwork mender swarm. Unlike the undead I plan on having Kethid use them along with the elementals at the beginning any fight.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

While I was securing Rethild I also had teams of bone nagas busy fortifying the Forest of Wyrms. Naturally by creating more false dragons. After all I did have a number of corpses to work with.

The dragon hoards were mostly just a bit of extra resources. The real treasure was the preserved skeleton of their ancestor. None of the green dragons I killed were more than thirty feet. The skeleton on the other hand was twice that, perfect for creating another false dragon.

The interesting thing was that I didn't even have to customize the bone nagas I grafted inside her. The ones in Dromund Kaas already had spell lists geared towards mist and fog spells. And not only did I enchant the wing claws with a version of Smoking that resembles poisonous fog, I also embedded several modified eversmoking bottles that released clouds of the same.

Paired with having her eyes enchanted with fogsight and she had a terrifying advantage in combat. Especially since nauseating cloud and silence will negate blindsight. Horseshoes of the Zephyr means even tremorsense won't detect her. Making it even better, by using watchghosts made from flying snakes and each carrying a ghost touch eversmoking bottle, she can shroud an entire battlefield.

Unlike Shimmergloom, who I really should figure out a name for, she wouldn't win through attrition. Instead she'll be an assassin. I name her Zabuza. It fits and it isn't like anyone can complain about her being the wrong gender.

I add subtle and deadly grace to all her natural attacks, which combined with the tattoo of Hunter's Eye gives her a sneak attack damage bonus of 9d6. With her attacks also having marrowcrushing, vicious and energy aura it gives her a very good change of killing an enemy in a single round.

I even create a unique tattoo that was based off Bloodstar. The tattoo will drain blood from nearby enemies then it'll store it. The Mighty Fist property will kick in then and allow the stored blood to be spent on a Bloodfeeding property. The tattoo was massive in order to allow it store and preserve large quantities of blood. It was equivalent to three hundred constitution points or fifteen hundred blood points, although the spending cap of fifty at a time still applies. And using a bound troll I can easily make sure her reservoir is kept full.

Compared to the damage increase from just the Enlarge Person or Sharptooth spells the bloodfeeding tattoo isn't actually very efficient. Not worth the time and effort to bother mass producing. Especially since it needs recharging. At least it was entertaining to design and create and it did fit the whole ambush theme.

In order to push the whole mist theme as well as provide disposable flankers I add a pair of Censures of Air Elemental Command. Incense is just made from tree sap. It isn't hard to set up a nice small underground bunker farm to mass produce it. Just for fun and a nice bit of irony I mostly grow the one that creates 'dragon's blood'.

In place of a breath weapon I give one of the bone nagas a Ring of Cloudkill. Rolling clouds of poison gas are close enough. The long duration and mobile nature of the spell makes it easier to use as a distraction too.

In contrast the four green dragons I killed that were only thirty feet long were designed for attrition. They still had similar set ups. Mist focused bone nagas, Fogsight, Enlarge, Sharptooth and Hunter's Eye and even a few watchghosts. It was just less. They only had a pair of bone nagas instead of six and four watchghosts instead of a dozen.

Their natural weapons only hava Wounding, Marrowcrushing and four versions of Cursespewing on them. Besides the normal one, the other three all lowered different ability scores. Their Symbols were similarly focused, having multiple Spell Loss, Pain, Weakening and Fear, but no others. As opposed to Stunning, Death, Discord and Insanity Zabuza used.

Finally instead of any censures, they have a Ring of Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound. The spell was changed to create a large viper instead of dog which hisses at intruders, but is otherwise the same. It's perfect for laying traps and creating distractions. It works well with the Ring of Cloudkill. Also paired with a Silence spell it works for ambushes.

The best part was that they were all joined together with a Rary's Telepathic Bond. It allows them to keep track of each other and call for aid. By dividing the forest into a grid they can use coordinates to arrange more elaborate ambushes.

Not that they need to patrol alone. While there were only six adult green dragons, there were twice that many young. Only one had died before the rest were secured. I fed the oldest to a deepspawn and with plenty of boosts managed to age seven of the rest.

None of them were pushed past adults though. Any further and I was fairly certain it'd be too much. As it was I still lost three of them. Still, eleven huge size green dragons is more than enough to secure the whole forest. And with a deepspawn holding a copy, I can always make more.

Which is good since the portal key for the Forest of Wyrms is a dragon's breath weapon. And since none of my false dragons have real breath weapons or count as dragons, there is no way to get reinforcements. Which is why I ended up adding a new unit to the army.

Nagas, serpentflesh golems and mounted archers. I can't help but notice they seem to be lacking a true tank unit. Something large and tough enough to smash enemy lines. Well, except for dragons, but even they were designed for ambushes.

I think it was the tasloi who gave me the inspiration. Like them and xvarts I knew of another race that had an innate connection to an animal. Well vermin, but close enough. Ettercaps.

Ettercaps can raise and train spiders of all types as easily as everyone else does dogs. It wasn't hard to set up either. I simply moved my sword spider farm over to the volcano. Well duplicate the set up and divide the stock. Then capture, Mindrape and then tattoo an ettercap and I had the template for my trainers.

Thankfully fang dragon blood does not make them any harder to control. And while they're still much slower than most creatures their size, their ability to climb and jump means they're perfect for fighting inside the forest. Outside the forest is another matter.

Which is why, I go through all the current spiders and find the one with the highest strength and dexterity scores. Then I have the bone nagas heavily tattoo it, although the most important ones are Might Fists holding Sharptooth and Speed, a boost to speed and jumping and a combination Enlarge / Reduce Person.

While normal spiders scare people, elephant sized ones should be terrifying. And this way I can enchant each leg, meaning the spiders will prove effective even against a dragon. And if a few die, they were just spawn, easily replacable.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

With two parts of the network secured I sent more scouts to explore the other parts more thoroughly. Including the trapped destinations.

The Raurin desert proves fairly useful. At least for obtaining more dragon corpses. It seems the dragons their know about the portal destination and take turns monitoring it when bored. I nabbed a nice pair of browns and another blue dragon before they stopped letting themselves get ambushed.

It was only the fact that the bone nagas inside them can cast independently that kept me from losing Shimmergloom and Icingdeath. Really glad they can't follow them.

One of them led to Chult and I wasn't going to even try there. Red dragons, fire newts and salamanders were just what my scouts saw before escaping. The few that survived.

Mortik Swamp on the other hand was perfect. Located inside Luiren, it was hundreds of miles from any other base I've set up. And while it's inside a country, they're halflings. The DnD equivalent of hobbits. Cheerful, friendly... peaceful.

Not that they're helpless, but they aren't as nearly aggressive as other races.

Too bad I'm currently out of black dragons.

On the other half of the trap destination, where all the gear is sent, is deep in the Wyrmbones mountain range. Bordering the Shaar savannah they were isolated and likely due to whoever Kethid had been, uninhabited.

Since the mountains were named for their resemblance to a massive petrified dragon skeleton I decided to use that as my theme. I started a terraforming project to sculpt the mountains to enhance that impression. I didn't want people to look and think 'hey, that kind of looks like a dragon's skeleton'. I wanted them to see it and marvel at the enormous fossil being exposed and wonder how something that large ever existed.

Of course I wasn't trying to convince them it was real. Which meant I need a group to live here that can and would go to so much effort. The obvious answer to me was kobolds. Which meant I needed dragons to rule them and I just so happened to have a pair of brown dragons needing a home.

I decided to keep them more in theme than I normally did. While the breath weapon can't be completely replicated, a Ring holding a lightning bolt that was enlarged and substituted to acid is close. Even more so when I add three ring so they can breath out in a fifteen foot wide line.

The bone nagas inside all have Rings holding widened Haboobs, allowing them to duplicate the large sandstorm normal brown dragons can create. And since they can keep casting it, it can grow much larger than normal. I also add an item that allows the casting of Sandstorm once per day. You never know when you might need an instant tornado.

An extremely powerful array of tattoos grant tremorsense out for a hundred and twenty feet and allows the dragons to use Xorn Movment and Earthglide. Fighting them will be much like fighting a clever ghost. The bone nagas just enhance that feeling, concentrating as do on earth and pit spells.

In keeping with the whole desert powers theme brown dragons have I decide to provide them with appropriate minions. Dessicators are created from the remains of water elemental aspected creatures, such as a half-water elemental troll. So I created gem rings that allowed me to summon fifty large dessicators.

They weren't the only creatures I was going to have them use either. Voidwraiths look like clouds of black smoke and are created from creatures of elemental air. Instead of using them as minions though, I add Smoking to one of the dragon's natural attacks and then bind a number of voidwraiths to the dragon. Their ability to create vacuums and suffocate people will fit the choking ash cloud image Smoking gives. It also allows me to play with another type of undead.

Since Halruua is so close I set the majority of the Symbols for Weakness, Death, Insanity and Spell Loss. The first two should kill or cripple mages easily and the last two make them vulnerable. No point making it too easy to negate attacks. They are wizards after all. Preparation is kind of their schtick.

With the dragons pretty much done and firmly in charge I turn to tho kobolds. Much like with the other group I plan to encourage them to become sorcerers and especially necromancers. After all these are called the Wyrmbones. It wouldn't be right to not use skeletons.

Towards that end I place some deepspawn holding their own copies of the young green dragon I had selected to copy. Harvesting it for parts would allow the kobolds access to bone, fangs, hide and scales. Plenty of resources.

As a tribute to the dragon that led me here the next dragon was made half-black dragon instead of green. While the leaders will be able to control and use powerful skeletons, the rest of the kobolds will need something else. And since the brown dragons can't use supernatural acid, why not provide something that does?

I've run across digesters before. They were like a water gun crossed with an ostrich. Of the water gun was full of acid. Like kobolds they were constantly hungry. It made them almost mindless. The increased intelligence from the dragon blood made it much easier to tame them, especially since it was easy to feed them. Melting everything down the way they do, they really aren't picky eaters.

I had to be careful about what kinds of units I placed in the Wyrmbones though. That close to Halruaa I didn't need to place something that would draw too much attention. Rethild didn't matter since everyone avoids the swamp, but Wyrmbones sits right next to three major trade routes. Which meant no dread warrior or heavily tatttooed spawn.

Still I was satisfied creating various half-dragons for the kobolds to work with. Dire weasels were dungeon bred so that they were the equivalent size of to dogs for the kobolds before adding fang dragon blood. And half-blue dragon halruaan behirs were used as alternative mounts and warbeasts.

Still I wanted something that would protect them against mages, which is why I added golems. In particular dragonbone and drakestone golems. They'll defend the mountains and give them a trump card against any mages that show up.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

In the end I decided against using the portals to the other two-way destinations. They were simply too much trouble. They were each located on a mountain range close to a powerful country and inhabited by real dragons. Taking any of them over would draw way too much attention.

So I tore down the entire network. I then built my own. And since Kethid was the source of the portals originally I built the network for his lizardfolk. I built two way portals in Rethild, Dromund Kaas and Dagobah, the only places I have lizardfolk right now.

Hmm. Maybe I should rename Rethild? Something to think about later.

I then add one to Mortik Swamp. By using the lizardfolk I don't need to place a dragon. Kethid can easily fill that role.

Best of all? Halfings raise riding dogs and ponies. Both of which are medium sized. While I don't plan on expanding the swamp, I can probably take over a small section of land next to it to raise animals. Maybe set up slaughterhouses and such.

It would stretch the road out even more, but like in the Mere of Dead Men I can build a toll road. Besides the road already bulges out incredibly far. Even if I don't grab some property I'll likely build a toll road. And with Dambrath so close Luiren might even hire some mercenaries.

The only real difference will be that here I'll raise black wyvern drakes. It's far enough from Halruaa that it shouldn't draw too much attention. It'll also likely make it easier to buy property since I can establish periodic waystations to feed them. And with how many raiders come out of Dambrath it wasn't like the halfings used their southern coastline.


	29. Economic Warfare

Chapter 29 Economic Warfare

It was nice seeing Unther collapsing so completely. My base had performed perfectly. The new rhinos were like living tanks. They roamed freely across the country side eating everything they came across. Town guards, rangers and even militia were more likely to die than drive one off.

It looks like the Mulharondi are trying to capture some, which isn't too hard. Just bait them and they'll charge. One of their tweaks was to make them incredibly aggressive against humanoids though, so good luck taming them.

The sphinxes were in many ways even worse. Normal sphinxes were already a problem, but mine were much larger and aggressive. They also weren't solitary. Facing a flying lion was one thing. Facing an entire pride of twenty foot flying lions was just suicide.

Dozens of small towns and farms had already been destroyed. That wasn't even counting their raids into the Greenfields. Between the two the are had been devastated. Honestly it looked a lot like a plague of locust had cleaned some parts of it.

Starving, the cities had fallen almost without resistance. Mulharond is now very busy securing the area. Not an easy thing since the sphinxes are now harassing their supply lines. The rhinos though had been largely slaughtered by large patrols.

It made strategic sense, but the patrols took horrible losses. It was made worse since I kept releasing new males, teleporting them randomly across Unther. No females though. I had seen how devastating they could be and wasn't willing to see them destroy the Shaar grasslands.

I even have my sphinxes culling the rhinos. Killing off any females they find. After two years their were a lot more of them than I expected. I was even considering just wiping out all the one outside my mountain base.

Well except those captured. That would look way too deliberate. Here's to hoping the Mulharondi aren't complete idiots and keep any rhinos they do breed contained. After all it isn't hard, just use a gender reversing curse.

In there place I start releasing dire rabbits. They'll be able to continue devastating the region by simply evading the large patrols. They'll also provide something for the sphinxes to hunt besides people.

Still, at least Tiamat's church is no longer on the rise. With the people viewing the Mulharondi, and their food, as saviors people are actually converting in large numbers. Which might be a problem later on, but at least Tiamat's church will be gone. Or at least from that region.

I even consider trying to expand and take territory before deciding against it. My forces really aren't suited for more than raiding and with the Ash Plains right there, keeping control would be a nightmare. Not worth it.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Utapau was still small, only barely covering more than the Marsh of Tun. However Cormyr had already noticed them. From the reports one of their generals, hungry for glory since he didn't take part in the Tuigan campaign, had ordered an attack.

Except it's very difficult to fight while desperately trying to not meet anyone's gaze. The expedition had been slaughtered. In retaliation the medusae had pushed outwards explosively, completely wiping out everyone in the entire valley that wasn't part of Utapau.

The interesting thing was how Utapau was developing. Between the massive grimlocks and terrifying medusae none of the monsters were willing to challenge them. Instead they joined. Utapau's army now held trolls, hobgoblins and ogres.

Azoun hadn't taken the losses lightly. Nor the declaration of a kingdom in land that Cormyr had expected to eventually settle in. However two years wasn't enough time to recover, especially after to loss of an entire company of knights and all the troops accompanying them.

The best part was the new Mystra. The War Wizards, the royal order of battle mages in Cormyr, had attempted a guerilla campaign against Utapau. Except Mystra really didn't like magic being used for terrorism, so the War Wizards stopped being able to memorize spells.

Meanwhile Utapau retaliated with their ancients. Officially old medusae sorcerers and actually heavily glamoured bone nagas. As sorcerers, their powers didn't come from Mystra so they had no problems. And Cormyr, despite it's size, had a much smaller aerial force. After the first couple clashes, my manticores had free reign.

In the end it was simply costing them too much. Soldiers, buildings and money. Especially since Cormyr didn't have any clear routes into the Tunlands. A mountain range stood in the way and only a single narrow, winding road passed through it. Very easily defended.

The other way was almost as bad. The Stonelands and Anauroch meant convoys would have trouble. Large wagons couldn't traverse the broken landscape or rocky desert. And bandits would devastate any kind of supply line. Then they had to pass the Farsea Marshes, which were full of diseases. They'd lose half their forces before ever making it to battle.

King Azoun ended up officially recognizing Utapau and signing a number of treaties with them. Mostly peace treaties and over travel rights. Two major trade routes pass through Utapau, Cormyr needed access to them.

Which is fine. Trade can only benefit me as well. I was even excited enough that I create a new species for them. A dungeonbred moose modified to have even larger antlers, the material was also adjusted. They were also similar to a reindeer in how it uses a skin sheath over the antler, although I changed it so that it was pretty much ivory, having no blood vessels and being denser and harder than normal bone.

I also set up farms for deep rothe. Cave moss, which is what largely what they eat, only needs faerezz to grow. Since I'm already using it, what's a little more? Along with the dire squirrels I moved over from Komarr and the watchspiders I'm pretty much spreading everywhere they now have plenty to trade.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

it was actually Utapau and trade that brought the new area to my attention. I had tentatively garrisoned the Farsea Marshes during the conflict with Cormyr. Although they never had to chance to be used and I had just left them there. The garrison had standard orders to scout and patrol which I hadn't bothered to change. Undead after all don't have to worry about diseases.

I had all but forgotten about them when they reported the discovery of a portal. A two-way portal at that. One leading all the way to the Dragonsword Mountains. Fortunately on the side away from Mulharond so there was no chance of an invasion. However the portal is continuous and doesn't have any restrictions, meaning trade is possible.

The real problem is the fact that there is very little there. With the ever expanding Raurin desert nearby most people have moved into Mulharond. The scattered people that do stay are hounded by dracosphinxes that lair in the mountains and the brown and blue dragons from the desert.

Since I don't want to pass up this opportunity I just need to create my own new settlement. The only issue was creating one powerful enough to protect itself from the very powerful monsters that surround it.

I think it was because of all the stuff that reminded me of egyptian that I decided to use gnolls. Not as they are though. I took flinds, which were already a powerful subspecies, augmented them with ogre blood and then had Jhesiyra twist them until they were barely recognizable.

Standing ten feet tall and covered in short black fur, they looked like what gnolls would be if they were based off jackals instead of hyenas. Their dense fur protected them from the frequent sandstorms and their eyes had an extra clear eyelid like that of reptiles. Their body was adapted to withstand heat and retain water.

Their body was slimmed down some and combined with a bit of work with their legs they were as fast as a warhorse. They were also more flexible and their joints adjusted to make the best use of the weapon I wanted make their signature. A double crescent axe.

That wasn't the only exotic weapon the gnolls trained with. They also used the gnomish calculus. Essentially a large sling designed to throw potions. Except the gnolls used it to launch larger stones or seed pods.

While the double crescent axe can by made by a bone naga using Wall of Iron and Fabricate, I needed a source for expendable ammunition. Which is where the flesh-mulcher tree comes in. An odd species I ran into when taking over the Coldwood, it throws clusters of seed pods that explode with a variety of effects.

I used some grafting techniques I still remembered along with some magical healing and spliced several branched onto a single tree. The result was a single flesh-mulcher tree that grew all of the types of pods, not just a few. A few simulacrums later and my gnolls now had their endless ammunition source.

I had to keep everything within limits. After all I planned on using them to create dread warriors. I even had a way of making sure they provided me with the best ones possible. Mindrape is a necessity after rebuilding their bodies. Creating an aggressive society with warrior tendencies and an emphasis on dueling isn't hard at all.

Setting up arenas where they can challenge their honored ancestors gives them a goal to work towards. If they can win against the current roster of dread warriors the bone nagas clone him and then use him as the template and add him to the roster as the next challenge. Although I'll probably limit it to something like only needing four victories once the roster starts growing. The victorious gnoll, after his soul transfers to the clone, retires. Honored, given preference for mating, and the finest food. The only real expectation left too help train his own young.

I also twisted the armored trolls until they were also barely recognizable. Covered in elaborate segmented copper plate mail with elaborate helmets that resemble an eagles head they didn't look like undead. Their armor also bore the symbol of Ra, who had died during the Orcgate Wars.

I intent to use the zombies as guards and garrisons rather than shock troops. It will also let me amass enormous numbers of them to be stored in 'tombs'. They were armed with a single crescent axes and large shield. And since they were partially meant to fight brown dragons, they also were given tremorsense.

As the elite aerial counterparts to the basic ground troops I chose harpies. Like the gnolls my version was barely recognizable. The first thing I did was to find the most attractive harpy I could and then used a Wish to cross it with a nymph. With a few more to customize the hybrid I had an incredibly beautiful woman with shimmering feathers that looked like they were made from mother of pearl.

By far the most extreme changes were on a much more basic level. I made the entire species female. For mates they'd have to use humanoids. Since mentally I changed their mindset to admire strength and skill it allowed me to use them to work with and reinforce my gnolls. The retired, victorious gnolls would quickly end up sought out as mates. A tweak to the harpies pheromones made them very attractive to the gnolls.

That wasn't the only part of their mentality I altered. Thanks to the woodling template they have very tough skin and don't need clothing so I ignored modesty. Besides, it wasn't like the gnolls cared for it either. But hygiene was very important to me. Living in filth and surviving on rotting food was just gross. No, making them beautiful wouldn't change anything if they stank and went about covered in filth.

It was interesting to see how the animal part of a created species affects their mind. And harpies were clearly influenced by their vulture ancestors. Which is why I had switched it out for an eagle. The harem aspect was easy enough to get around since males of the species don't exist. Without that they were much more cooperative. Well that and the abundant food.

To provide them with equipment I created simulacrum of steelwings and umplebys. Large feathers that are essentially giant razor blades are very useful. In particular for the heads of the flight lances they use. And umpleby hair can be woven into incredibly strong nets and rope as well as lassos.

I didn't build outwards much. Instead my settlement was more of a steeply terraced city with greek style architecture that heavily favored open pavilions and platforms. Gardens, small waterfalls and bathing pools were scattered across the city. The real living quarters were dug deeper into the mountain The flesh-mulcher trees especially looked beautiful with their hypnotically glowing bark. At least from a distance.

Of course none of this will make any difference if they can't face something as powerful as a dragon head on. Not when it wasn't possible to use defense in depth. Which is why I created a brand new creature for them.

Well more like combined several templates. Chimera were amalgamations of three different creatures, dragon, lion and goat. They breed true and are well known species. They also have two lesser known crossbreeds. One is with a true dragon. It allows the dracimera to have two breath weapons and potentially be immune to two elements without any of the known problems of mixing different dragons. The second is a mantimera, which uses a manticore.

Dracimera are often bred by the Cult of the Dragon since they can breed true. At least if you keep the two matching dragon types the same. Bad things happen even to chimera if you add a third. Mantimera though are sterile. Which isn't a problem for me.

I'm not sure what to call my creature, but it certainly looks impressive. Taking a mantimera and alcheically adding the second dragon type worked out perfects. As did the layers of magical tattoos I added afterwards. And it certainly looks impressive with a human head wearing a blue and gold pharaoh headdress thanks to a glamour and flanked by a gold and blue dragon head.

With it immune to fire and electricity it was capable of facing the dracosphinxes and blue dragons on equal terms. It's smaller stature offset by having a breath weapon that is still usable. The tail is enchanted with Magebane, Flaming, Shock, Distance, Splitting and Wounding, hopefully allowing it to weaken enemies it faces.

The real boost though it the two dragon heads. They have Jaws of the Dragon, increasing their damage higher even after my adjustments with a Wish spell. More importantly they were enchanted with a very heavily modified version of haste that allows the heads to take independent actions. Not terribly fancy, except they can use both breath weapons while moving or at the same time as the tail spikes. Completely worth not being able to use Speed enchantments.

All of that and it was still only large size. Still small enough to be copied by a deepspawn. Although the Enlarge / Reduce Person tattoo meant the size difference wasn't quite as important. The tattoo also meant it was easier for them to make their way around the city, which is important if they were to rule it.

Of course all this was pointless if they have nothing to actually trade.

It took me a bit, but I found the perfect resource. Folugubs are beetles that grow up to six feet long. They're rare since they exclusively consume crystals. Which includes gems. Normally they're killed as pests.

They have one feature that is perfect though. Their chitin is essentially a woven, semi-organic crystalline substance. And after the folugub is crossed with a gem dragon, it becomes a transparent shell of gemstones. Not real gems, but close enough to be used as such in jewelry.

The best part was that it wasn't even hard to feed them. Dendritic armor is made from special crystals and magically regrows itself. A single suit provides more than enough material to keep an entire colony of fologubs well fed. I can even duplicate the dendritic armor easily with the use of spawn.

Since the Dragonsword Mountains are right next to the Plains of Purple Dust, I use amethyst dragons to cross the fologubs with. It seems fitting that the resulting lavender and purple organic scale shaped gems match the color of the obviously magical sands of the desert.

I also added a new type of gem scarab for them to farm. Which of course grew amethysts. It was interesting that it required necromancy to get the correct color, the beetle able to cast Touch of Fatigue.

The gem scarabs aren't actually meant for sale. At least not primarily. Their main purpose was to feed the crysmals I summoned for the settlement. Looking like crude crystalline scorpions, crysmals have one ability I wanted. And sadly as an outsider I couldn't just make a simulacrum of it.

Crysmals have the ability to launch their stingers at enemies. The six inch crystalline darts are razor sharp and like a Prince Rupert's Drop, resistant to an initial impact only to shatter almost immediately after. The best part is as an elemental creature they don't die of old age and they grow larger over time. I didn't have to settle for the normal three foot ones.

Instead, summoning the largest crysmal I was able, I got one a full twelve feet long with a stinger two feet long. It dealt an amazing 6d6 damage on impact before exploding and dealing a d8 to everything adjacent to the target.

Simple creatures, the crysmal was more than happy to trade make a bargain. A simple ring of sustenance meant I didn't need to feed it and one of regeneration meant it could continuously generate stingers. I only had to periodically feed it enough gems for it to reproduce, something I was more than willing to do.

The stingers, carefully caught using a spell designed to catch projectiles, are given to the harpies. Dropped from above, they make a decent addition to their arsenal. Mounted on the end of a full size lance, it made diving attacks terrifying.

I planned to restrict their use only to the best harpy warriors though. The ones who were reckless enough to charge enemies like dragons and skilled enough to survive long enough to attack. After all since the lances are disposable I have to give the harpy a Might Fist type gauntlet that applies Valorous to their lance. And regardless of the recall enchantment if the harpy dies, it didn't make sense to just hand them out. They'd be appreciated more if they had to be earned.

At least I can sell some of the scarab gems and all of the carapaces.

Eh. I have time. It'll be another year or two at least before Utapau extends all the way to the Farsea Marshes. And Korriban, which is what I ended up naming the settlement, would take a while to really establish itself.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Thankfully those are the only problems. While the groups I placed near Thay are meant to weaken them, it'll be at least a decade before they're ready to seriously expand and push things. It seems that if anyone does know about my settlements, they're at least not willing to try and destroy them.

Well Umbarra is being constantly raided by adventurers, but it was kind of meant to lure them in. And since they haven't managed to clear out any sections of the swamp it seems to be working. Better yet, with the gear they're leaving behind and the extra tunnels the xvarts dig for themselves it's starting to gain proper dungeons.

In contract though several of my places are viewed as friendly. Or at least not hostile.

The Eldar are fully public now as well. Although they still keep to themselves, killing everyone who tries to spy on them. Like Thay, I've been piling wards and other defensive spells over their settlements until it resembles a mythal.

Dagobah was established peaceful relations with Baldur's Gate and the Servants of Kethid are now an official mercenary company. Like Mortick Swamp, it's been fully converted into a colony for the Kingdom of Kethid.

The biggest success though is Mechanisburg. It's proven wildly popular and the city had expanded rapidly. It filled with settlers incredibly quickly and has been steadily expanding ever since. They even added a third floor. If they keep expanding upwards, they'll reach the surface eventually.

There's a full church of Mystra located in the city. It's also the only church in the cramped city. My thankful gesture to the previous holder of the title. You should always keep your promises. That part of me hadn't changed. And while Midnight's foibles helped me against Cormyr, I can't wait until she starts taking her job seriously.


	30. Desert Storm

Chapter 30 Desert Storm

Seeing how all of my investments are going strong I decided to once again start expanding. After all the sooner I started preparing for the return of the City of Shade the better position I'll be. After all there was no way I was going to let an entire city full of evil archmages do whatever they wanted.

I decided on the Far Forest as my next target. Not only does it run along the western border of the Anauroch, but it is also close to Hellgate Keep. While I know originally it's all taken care of, no point taking chances. And why not help them out a little?

I'm not the nicest person, even less so since becoming a vampire. I also have quite a few dealings with devils. That said, letting them take over would be a horrible thing. It's completely kill any market value I had along with all my soul trading operations.

The first unit is place down there is of course my newly acquired flesh golems. How can I pass up having a group designed to combat devils and mages being led by magic immune fighters? Although they aren't really fighters. They lack feats, specializations and the other tricks real fighters have.

So maybe spellblades. Or bladesingers. Some kind of magic fighter combo. I can duplicate enough of their abilities with tattoos and items to create a decent mockery of them. Which is feasible since I can just tattoo the bodies I'm going to be process to create the golems. It's easy enough since I know exactly what parts I'm going to be using.

I make them resemble sun elves. I'll provide a good excuse for their powers and isolation. And even other elves will be able to believe a militant faction figured out how to make themselves immune to magic.

I also add a very few subtle clues that imply they are of Vyshaan descent. And while it will make it more believable, hopefully it won't cause anyone to overreact. The clues are minor and distorted to indicate passage of time and more importantly, change. No need to panic the other elves.

The tattoos I give them are extensive. I go all out with the. Resistance, enhancement and even luck bonuses. Armor, energy resistances, movement enhancements and even ones that enchanted a longsword being held. But by far the most common were an entire host of ones that held spells.

For some reason it just felt right to make all their spells look like swords. They could summon twin longswords that counted as +1 keen weapons. They can also use the Manyjaws spell, which look like flying swords. They could cast Fireshield, Stormshield and a wounding version of Death Armor. All of which form energy swords. Even their different types of Scorching Rays all look like three energy swords. And once per day a widened Vortex of Teeth could be used that looked like flashing swords.

Of course part of the process of creating intelligent flesh golems is the familiar bond. Thankfully it was easy enough to reincarnate Tulrun into a sun elf. They'll be the generals to the flesh golems role as champions and vanguard.

Even better it makes it easier to fake rigid social structure completely focused on magic. Elves who aren't skilled enough end up losing more of their talents in return for magic immunity via ritual. All lies, but very believable.

To explain the lack of epic level casters I equip all of them with plenty of wands and potions. Implying they are always crafting and using up the items in pointless duels. The story hangs together better by having such large and obvious social issues.

It's further supported by the other type of golem I add. Diamond golems are exotic enough to be relatiely unknown and more importantly old. Their origins are ancient and lost to time. Which sounds perfect for a group of sun elves.

Even better diamond golems possess the ability to cast Sunbeam, which means they can dispel most forms of magical darkness. Their one drawback is the fact that they cast True Strike, another of their abilities, before every single attack. However I can compensate for that somewhat.

I learned a lot from Koger's work with automatons. More than enough to create a massive greatsword that had to be enchanted with Balance just to hold and graft it onto the main body. It raised the cost considerably, to almost quadruple the original price. However it also allows me to add Spellblade properties so it can absorb Shatter and Imprisonment, the only two spells they are vulnerable to.

To make it fit it's role better the sword also has Magebane and Shadowscourge, which along with the golem's automatic dispels make it almost perfect against shadovar. After all that I had just enough room to squeeze in ghoststrike and keen.

As support for both units I use the gouger beholder. If feels appropriate since they were created by the Phaerimm, ancient enemies of the Shades. The fact that gougers work equally well against Phaerimm is just deliciously ironic. Aside from the normal tattoos I also apply the chameleon template to it. Combined with it's normal abilities it can stretch its tongue out up to thirty feet.

I actually didn't enchant it's tongue at all. With the antimagic cone up it wouldn't have helped. So I worked with more templates. Dungeonbred allowed me to improve it's damage and did fang dragon blood. 3D6 isn't that amazing compared to many of my creatures, but at least I managed to make it naturally keen. Additionally the serrations and saliva provide a nonmagical wounding property. It wasn't hard to add some poison glands as well.

The final creature was something I hadn't thought of until I ran across them while clearing out the forest. Will O'Wisps. And while normally I didn't care much for the small, fragile creatures that feed off suffering, they have one trait that fits in perfectly. They're almost completely immune to magic.

They also have very good defenses. Add a tattoo of Barkskin and bracers of armor and they're virtually untouchable with an armor class of over forty. Even better the only two exceptions to their magic immunity are Magic Missile and Maze, both single target spells. Add a Mighty Fist tattoo holding Spellblade enchantments for those two spells and they'll be able to absorb or reflect them at will. A very nasty surprise for most casters.

The best part is adding blue dragon blood. It provide even more armor, health and other boosts. And with a carefully worded Wish the breath weapon was twisted to augment the Will O'Wisps natural spark attack, quadrupling it's damage. The fact that it's color changed from the eerie greenish tinge to a light blue that reminded me of a lightsaber didn't hurt.

Luckily a Sustenance enchantment means I don't need to constantly torture beings to keep them fed. It also means I can afford to have them everywhere. I plan to have them like fireflies. Flitting around in place of guards, patrols and even as trapped decorations.

I normally wouldn't potentially expose my deepspawn by using them to control my troops, but it seemed safe enough. After all Will O'Wisps all look like balls of glowing mist. Realizing they're spawn when they are already identical isn't realistic enough for me to worry about.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

With the Far Forest looking secure I started looking over the edges of the Anauroch for another opportune spot. Sadly it seems I won't be able to link the Far Forest with Utapau. Evereska, Battle of Bones, Weathercote Woods, there were all too obvious and secure to take without drawing attention.

Besides, Evereska ends up weakening the Phaerimm and exposing the Shadovar. Unless I want one of my settlements to end up like Tilverton does, best just to steer well clear of both.

North of the Far Forest though I find two prime locations. Both ruined cities. Both already ruled by monsters and avoided by people. It was a hard choice and in the end I decided to be greedy. I'll take them both.

Hlaungadath was the easiest. It was ruled over by a pride of lamias, they were little more than bandits. Sure they had managed to enslave a handful of other monsters and people. That just made them powerful bandits. They did build defenses. Grow, cultivate or produce anything. Parasites through and through.

Isolation had made them lazy. Or maybe they were always lazy and that's why this was the first place I've found them ruling. They didn't even seem care that a ruin chanter, a fey dedicated to ancient ruins, ruled over the center of the city. He was killing their slaves and they just accepted it. Pathetic.

It wasn't hard to capture them. The most powerful of them only have a few class levels and none of them were spellcasters. Which is criminally wasteful when they live inside the ruins of one of only three cities to have survived the fall of Netheril!

Honestly they should be thanking me for enslaving them in turn. I'm not just providing resources, I'm giving them purpose. Not that I can tell them. People tend to protest being Mindraped even if it's for their own good.

First thing I do is alter them. Not a lot, but I add a touch of dragon blood, just enough for the draconic template. Enough that they gain an affinity for sorcery.

The second thing I do is Mindrape them all. I can't change their nature. Not drastically if I want it to be passed down to future generations. They're still basically cats. Whimsical, capricious, and with sadistic tendencies. I just channel it.

Tormenting slaves is beneath them. Targeting weak creatures means you are weak. Instead they challenge each other. Practical jokes and humiliating pranks. Nothing lethal, not against each other. They all train. Illusions and conjuration provides an edge in their contests, which is why they focus on it.

Raiding is a means of proving themselves. Testing out more dangerous ideas, capturing powerful creatures, killing enemies in artistic ways.

Ruling is annoying. It's also distracting, taking time from training and leaves them vulnerable. Much better to leave it to others. As long as they're provided for it doesn't matter who calls himself leader.

To make it easier for the lamias to accept leadership from a different race I place beholders in charge. Incredibly heavily tattooed beholders. Since I was pretty much only going to spawn them I went ahead and completely rewrote their personalities.

They're highly cooperative and efficient in their rule. Still paranoid, but very logical about it. It also helps that as spawn they all look identical. Even if people find their behavior suspicious, I doubt many people will even think to use a Greater Restoration on a beholder.

With lamias and beholders in charge of the city it only made sense to just have them enslave any other monsters I want to add to their forces. As long as they can be supported there isn't any reason to restrict them to only a few species.

The first target is obviously the ruin chanter. She's simply too powerful and controls too much territory for me to leave alone. Once secure, I have him steadily summoning ruin elementals. They'll provide the obvious defense so the lamias can work more subtly. They're obvious protectiveness of the ruins are another reason the lamias focus on illusions and conjurations, they're less likely to cause collateral damage.

She won't be the only ruin chanter I have either. Ascore had one as well which I quickly snatched up and moved over. In a few years I'll hopefully have a lot more. Sadly they're the only ruin chanter's I've come across. Hopefully inbreeding won't weaken their powers.

I also find a summoning ooze, which is intelligent enough that a charm spell affects it. Able to summon a small horde of creatures they help round out my forces. Not that I really needed that much variety.

Of the species they already have, I only keep the manticores. Gargoyles are fairly weak, their only selling point the fact they don't eat. With the resources I'm providing, both with trolls and myconids, that's no longer a problem. And asabi are little better than cannon fodder. I replace them with dragonnes, spellgaunts and gorgons. All of which have abilities that make them useful.

I added chimeras although I changed them all to dracimeras soon after. Two energy immunities is just too useful to pass up. Although I do make sure that one of them is always lightning. There are more than enough blue dragons in the area to make it worthwhile.

I also add species that don't need to be enslaved. Myconids are more than happy to accept being ruled, taking over the numerous and massive interior gardens I started setting up under the city. And simple creatures like phase wasps, otyughs and carrion crawlers make decent guards and traps. At least as long as they're fed.

I even manage to ally with a colony of meenlocks. As nothing in the settlement is humanoid they don't hate any of them and would normally ignore them. But by dedicating a deepspawn to providing them with victims, they're willing to help defend the city. They're also willing to go on raids since it's a chance to collect and transform more humanoids.

Suddenly remembering that in one of my favorite book series some drow found a portal to here I also add some needlefolk. If nothing else they'll protect the gardens. I also place a few simulacrum of flesh-mulcher trees. Between their poison, the meenlocks telepathy and lamias touch that was three ways to lower wisdom. The other pods are just a bonus and potential trade good.

Not the only one either. Using a combination of underground shelters and Plant Growth I have more than enough food to raise herds of dungeonbred camels. They had also been adjusted for speed and almost limitless endurance.

Using what I learned from the goliaths I managed to keep them still usable as mounts although it would feel a bit cramped. Still they served as amazing pack animals and were incredibly hardy due to being dungeonbred. Not that I had anyone who rode. Instead they used them as game animals, releasing them only to be hunted down.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

While I didn't find the portal the drow used I do find one that leads to Ascore. It's also two way. I guess it's a good thing I already planned to take the place over.

The ruins of a former dwarven city, Ascore had several levels beneath the surface one. In fact the surface seemed dedicated to trade, with warehouses, stores and docks for the interesting stone ships that were abandoned as the sea dried up. The same ships that are still sitting, perfectly preserved, in the sands.

It wasn't hard to clear out the city. Honestly the level of resistance was pitiful. A single coven of hags, some ghouls, zombies and a handful of gargoyles. I can only assume their isolation kept them safe.

It seems ironic that Mindrape, which is definitely an evil spell, is being used to make sure my monsters act less evil. Even the name is meant to show how obviously bad it is to use. Nothing with the word rape in it is good. Still, whatever works. Just in case though I add a trapped tattoo. If they ever turn chaotic evil in alignment again, they explode.

I was feeling a bit whimsical so, inspired by the stone ships, decided Ascore would be a pirate town. Well more like a trade hub with a fantasy pirate theme to it. Black sails, skulls, eye patches and all. Probably not peg legs, they're just too inefficient. Hook hands are fine. So a cartoony version of Luskan.

I liked the stone ships, or at least their idea, but not their execution. Biremes are such inefficient designs. At least I had plenty of spells that worked with stone so I was able to add more masts and convert it to using sails. Replace the oars with guns, add in a forecastle and aftcaste and it looked much more like the ships I imagined.

Since there wasn't any water I used a modified version of Horseshoes of the Zephyr. I studded the bottom of the ship with them, allowing it to 'float' exactly six inches above the ground.

To run each ship I installed a coven of hags. Each one customized to fill their roles. Partially with Mindrape, but more through their tattoos. Since it made little sense to use hags and then force them to fight differentlt, I focused on tattoos that allowed them to cast spells. This was on top of their coven powers.

The simplest was the ship's mage. I simply added the equivalent of a Ring of Telekinesis and another one holding Control Winds to the shrieking hag. She could propel the ship whenever not doing something else. Making up for the fact that the ship was clearly not designed for sails.

The other two were much more complicated. The captain, a green hag because of her natural abilities, had a number range of spell tattoos. Message, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Clairvoyance/clairaudience, Scrying, Locate Object and Locate Creature. They aided her by providing information and helping coordination efforts.

The last hag, which I actually had to track down and find an example of, was an annis. Standing eight feet tall despite being hunched over I modified her the most. Fang dragon blood, a Wish to improve her claws and more to bring her appearance back towards what it originally was.

The annis was intended to serve as the master-at-arms and as such only had two tattoos. Animate Dread Warrior and Kiss of the Vampire. Instead she had heavily enchanted claws that gave her the instinctive knowledge of Awesome Blow, Improved Bullrush, Knockback and Knockdown. Combined they let her attacks throw opponents back and onto their back, often right off the ship.

Not that ship was defenseless by any means. A fourth hag, a sea hag was sacrificed in order to bind as a watchghost to protect the ship. The ship's massive six foot skull figurehead was actually an enlarged flameskull made from a giant. And then there were the weapons.

The ships were outfitted with one foot wide by two foot hatches along the sides. Instead of flipping open they slip up or down. Up and they exposed gun ports which were filled with Thayan bombards. Down and they instead exposed a row of Symbols. I used three types, Symbols of Thirst, Spell Loss and Pain.

Besides the defenses the ships also have a large crew. It's easy to squeeze in more bodies than normal when they're just undead. The gun deck was filled with dread warriors. They weren't very powerful, but that was more because I just bought the first slave that met the requirements, polymorphed him into a small gnome and just tattooed him with the needed skills. They weren't really intended to fight. Instead they crewed the two dozen bombards located there.

The forecastle deck, instead of holding crew quarters, instead was packed with animated skeletons. Between the three hags and the extra Animate Dead tattoo I added they could control hundreds of normal skeletons. Add in an Animate Dead tattoo on the dread warriors raised that number to well over two thousand. Not that I had multiple thousands of bodies lying around.

Since Ascore used to be a dwarven city it felt appropriate that the version of armored trolls I fashioned for there looked like dwarves. I even used a steel dragon since I doubt even back then dwarves ever used anything as crude as bronze.

The armored trolls were clad in segmented full plate that matched as close as possible the armor style the Delzoun used. They were armed with a cutlass and a sickle which is shaped like a hook. I even managed to justify adding a steel peg leg. It lowered the speed of the troll enough that it matched that of a normal dwarf in armor.

Still, even using troll zombies, they could still control a few hundred. Completely justifying the Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion I added to extend the barracks.

The final addition to each ship was an aarokroca warrior I tattooed and spawned. I add one to every ship, literally placing them in the crow's nest. After all what kind of pirate captain doesn't have a talking parrot?

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

It's nice that research lets me figure out how many levels someone has even if it won't tell me what class they are. Still, logic is enough to approximate that. And it wasn't like I needed it to be perfect. It even works on historic figures that I have enough information on. Which is why I ended up sneaking into Mithral Hall and stealing several bodies.

I had thought about just creating another version of armored trolls for this, but in the end wanted something more than that. Besides I'd have to be insane to pass up a sixteenth level fighter in favor of a six hit die troll.

Outfitting them was simple. Weapons, which consisted of a dwarven axe, battlehammer and heavy pick, were made by a bone naga. A large shield and compound heavy crossbow were strapped to his back. While Delzoun didn't have compound crossbows, I have little doubt they couldn't have made them. Block and tackles were on their ships after all.

Armor though was easiest of all. Since they used stone so well I gave them dendritic armor. A simple Wish adjusted it for the style from Delzoun. No need to let any clues with the Rift dwarves, even if they are half a continent away.

Given how much effort I had sunk into the ships and their staff I decided to repeat it with the guard towers studded every two hundred feet along the newly built defensive outer wall. The towers were twenty feet wide and forty high, with the top two floors designed to hold three bombards each. The wall around the city were thirty feet tall, although large piers only twenty feet high did extend outwards periodically. The gates at the ends of the piers were the only means of entering the city.

While most of the very long piers are supported by pillars, the end is supported by a pair of slender towers. The top of each tower has a large animated crane to move cargo and people around. The towers also hold small staircases on the inside so people on the ground can reach the pier.

There is only one gate that isn't on a pier and it's massive and protected by an enormous armored drawbridge. It also leads to the shipyard, where new ships are made or damaged ones repaired. I also have a second ring of defensive towers set around the shipyard just in case.

While there are other gates at ground level, they don't lead into the city. Instead they're very obviously closed, with a large moat in the way and no bridge. It also has a portcullis barring the way at the far end. Except most of it is actually an illusion. It's actually just an niche in the wall holding a gelatinous cube.

That wasn't the only place I used an ooze. Running right up against the walls and stretching twenty feet wide, Ascore was surrounded by a pretty decent moat. Which would normally be a complete waste of water since they're in a desert. Which is why instead of water I used aballins. They can't be distinguished from actual water and will eat anything getting too close.

It seems fitting, given how I'm using the hags, to use perytons as my air support. Unlike aarokroca they are dark and twisted creatures. Much like hags. Which is why I tracked down several to experiment on.

I use a Wish along with a touch of dragon's blood to adjust their wings, allowing it to buffet with them. Seven natural attacks is enough to quickly overwhelm most foes. The only downside was it lost a bit of speed.

I take the best of the survivors and start improving him. Tattoos to boost it's abilities and add Speed and Sharptooth to all of it's attacks. An Enlarge and Reduce Person tattoo. And to make up for it's slow speed a Ring tattoo holding Lutzaen's Frequent Jaunt and another for Haste.

Like hags they also all have horrible personalities. Very likely a product of their creation. Not that it's a problem for me. One Mindrape later and I have a dedicated flying berzerker. And since I've tattooed him so heavily I add a spell trap to cause him to explode if it's undone.

At least they don't look like regular marauding monsters. Besides the fact they fly in formation their bracers of armor tattoos are glamoured to make them look like they're wearing Delzoun style light armor.

The perytons were housed in a single massive aviary that rose in the center of the city. Much like Sarumon's tower rose in Isengard. It was by far the largest structure above ground.

I kept the rest of the city as is. It had been a trade hub before and I meant to keep it as such. The portal to Hlaungadath meant I could draw on the resources there. Which were mostly small camels and possible exotic monster parts.

It was still enough to trade with Bedine. Ships heading into the desert could carry steel weapons, water and camels. Although there wouldn't be as much demand for those things if they headed west. Well maybe the weapons.

Instead I decide to raise goats. Goats are hardy and can easily be raised on the thick brush left behind from Plant Growth. They can be processed for meat, skins and kept for milk. And with Polymorph Other I can even recreate the Angora and Cashmere goats from Earth. And afterwards I also have their skulls.

That's not the only animal I decide to raise. Mules are stronger than camels. And if given the same improvements I gave the camels that gap becomes even larger. The only difference is that they lack the height to be properly ridden.

By embedding the changes latently into a female donkey all I have to copy is her. The mules won't be identical since they'll be actual siblings and I can avoid selling blatant proof I'm copying creatures. Tougher, stronger and with more endurance than any other animal, my mules will be the envy of all who don't have them. The fact that they're sterile just means I have a monopoly.


	31. Strange Lands

Chapter 31 Strange Lands

Wanting more than a single allied city I decided to build a third one to add to the alliance. I chose a site a little over a hundred miles north-east of Hlaungadath, right at the eastern end of the Ice Mountains. I dug deep into the mountain, creating a small valley to place the city it. Nestled like that, it's protected from three sides.

I didn't stop there. I dug into the ground, creating a slope and turning the valley into a deep crater. Then in the very center I built a massive structure out of glassteel. I used the twin goddesses from Claymore, two robed women standing back to back, praying and their wings extended. The women faced directly east and west and their wings were positioned on the intermediate directions.

The thousand foot statue was hollow and converted into a city. It also completely filled the pit, with their wings reaching and being attached to the sides of the valley. The entire valley is hidden by layered Mirage Arcanas and Guards and Wards spells. From the outside it looks like a small peak shrouded in fog.

There was more than just the statues though. The sides of the valley were dotted with small towers which all protected entrances to facilities dug into the surrounding mountains. They too were made from glassteel. Finally the bottom of the lake was filled with water, making the statue look like it's standing on the surface.

To rule it I placed a two pairs of white dragons. While they hadn't caused any real damage, my Eldar were not popular with dragons. In fact they seemed to downright hate them. Which led to me having more than enough corpses.

The main race for the city was going to be avariels. I had a lot of fun spinning an elaborate history for them. How two very arrogant mages had built a monument to themselves, how dragons had devastated their people, how they had taken pity on an injured white dragon and healed her and how she had given a gift of eggs to raise to protect them. With how territorial dragons are, they would provide an explanation for the death of any dragon that ventured too close.

I added a bit about the fall of Netheril and how it had crippled them. How they had warred with the successor states and chose to remain hidden. And how an orc invasion had nearly destroyed them. It gave me a very good excuse for why they lost so much evidence and everything looked so new. After all a race of wizards have to be intelligent.

Not that their numbers are going to be growing rapidly anytime soon. Even with converting numerous infants and the use of spawn it'll likely be a century or more before my city, Hoth, is staffed largely by actual avariels.

To protect them as well as provide them with a military I had them raise remorhaz. They're bright enough to respond well to conditioning and like kobolds seem to always be hungry. With abundant food, their population explodes, which makes sense for an insectile species.

Fortunately they also prefer very cold environments, so the young don't rampage through the city or the nearby lands. Any that escape just climb higher into the mountains or venture east to the High Ice. Not that many do. The lure of free food is a powerful one.

I also have them raise a few animals. Dungeonbred sabre-tooth cats provide ivory and pelts as resources as well as still providing skulls. And dire swans provide feathers, meat and eggs besides their skulls. They also look nice swimming around in the small lake at the base of the statue.

The animals gives me an idea. So I track down a Swanmay and steal her secrets. It turns out they aren't a race. Well not a natural one. Like the Lythari they use a ritual to provide the template. I create a half dozen avariel swanmays before sending them out to recruit more. I also sneak into a few small villages and Mindrape a few into believing they're long term agents of what will become a network. In some cases for generations.

I even leave them a few discrete magic items. Small things like various Quaal's Feather Tokens and in some cases a Figuring of Wonderous Power. I doesn't really matter if they're discovered since the ships will be selling them along with other goods from Hoth soon enough.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

In another likely insane fit of inspiration I also started establishing outposts based loosely on fairy tales. Each one was centered around a large manor glamoured to look like it's made from gingerbread. Since I was also going with the ancient theme I created three of them, each one focusing on one of the fields the Netherese divided their study of magic into.

The outposts were all placed fairly close to Ascore. Two of them about forty miles away on the far side of the Vordrorn Forest. The last community was only thirty miles away, but on the far side of the Arn Forest.

I placed a copy of Tulrun in each one, polymorphed into a old woman. To staff them I use a coven of annis hags, polymorphed into a small, creepy girls. Each group customized for their field.

The girls at the school of variation all wore red cloaks. They also had a tattoo of Bite of the Werewolf along with an Enlarge Person. They also had brass golems glamoured to look like partially transformed werewolves.

The girls at the school of mentalism had bright blond hair and had Symbols of Persuasion and Hopelessness on them. They also can summon a dire bear three times a day as well as cast bite of the Werebear on themselves.

Finally the girls at the school of inventive had a shield guardian glamoured to look like a small boy. They also had a wickerman construct glamoured to appear as an animated mobile oven.

I think my new chaotic nature was influencing me despite my precautions. Since it wasn't enough to sabotage my efforts I decided not to fight it.

As guards and to provide them with trade goods I partially transmuted a giant ant queen into a goose. The resulting giant goose laid eggs at a very high pace and had very strong feathers. Sadly it didn't count as an animal. The eggs weren't viable either, but at least tasted right.

Since I couldn't use their skulls I just kept modifying them, adding the Guardian template, Woodling, half-dragon, spellwarped and more. Then I layered them with magical tattoos since it seems like I was going to be needing plenty of them. I plan on each manor having a small flock.

I also add a small orchard, little more than a grove, with a flesh-mulcher tree in the center, glamoured to look like an apple tree. Protecting the orchard is a runic guardian, disguised as a scarecrow. It's set with several spells from the field of magic the outpost is centered around.

It didn't take long for word to spread, with only a few discrete nudges, and people to show up to settle nearby. They were mostly lured by the possible safety, of living near a friendly mage and still having their own land. Give it a few years and they'll turn into proper towns and I can start tutoring the children in wizardry. Paying a premium for new spells or even variations of spells will convince most to at least attempt it.

It'll also provide ready made ports for the trade ships from Ascore. From there word of mouth will spread and they'll be able to extend their routes. Hopefully to eventually making their way as far as Silverymoon.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I likely would have stopped there if I wasn't attacked. This time it wasn't part of some large plot or a crusade from a deity. No, it was simply a group of hobgoblins. Except they were led by a half-blue dragon hobgoblin and they called themselves the Blood of Morueme.

The name felt familiar and it wasn't until I started scrying that I realized why. They were a clan of blue dragons that took over and bred with a tribe of hobgoblins. For such a small group they were very powerful, having six dragons and a few hundred hobgoblins. It was impressive by the standards of most nations.

I considered them pathetic.

They had so many advantages and that was all they had accomplished. By being under the rule of the dragons they had plenty of protection. They also had access to magic. Or at least the dragons did even if they did hoard everything. And most importantly, they had time!

They had been around for centuries. They didn't start off with just a handful either. They were originally the Red Flayer tribe. Which meant their numbers hadn't changed much despite every reason too.

Outrage seems to have brought up more details that usual. And that is what I feel. In fact if they hadn't attacked me, and I could trust them, I would have helped the two brothers take over the clan. I sympathized with their plight. To be isolated and restricted, to not be allowed to grow in fear of being discovered. I can understand that.

Too bad I can't see a way to convert the dragons.

In preparation for the attack I added something new to Ascore. Simulacrum of geriviars. The explosive nodules could be fired from the bombards, although they had to be stored carefully. I loaded all five ships I'd converted and headed south.

Like the green dragons in the Forest of Wyrms, it wasn't difficult to overwhelm the clan of dragons. It was made even easier by baiting them with a few survivors and luring the two brothers out to attack. The bombards were... less than ideal against creatures with damage reduction.

At least as first. It was different once a half dozen perytons slammed into them and smashed them into the ground. The dragons clearly didn't have much experience with fighting multiple creatures the same size as them. Much less ones using suicidal charges.

Their mates came out to support them and once again the perytons smashed them into the ground. They also brought along what seemed like most of the hobgoblins. Steady bombardment destroyed the hobgoblins and were wearing down the dragons. However it was killing my perytons, but that's what they were there for.

The parents came out afterwards, all fat and happy, curious about the noise. For a paranoid dragon he sure acted like a reckless idiot. It was obvious he hadn't even bothered scrying with the way he charged out.

It was disappointing none of them were more than thirty feet long. Clearly I was going to need more than just them for this base. After all I wasn't about to pass a place like this up when it offers itself to me.

I quickly animated the last two and had them retreat. The battle had been boring enough that I was free to start planning and I needed them for the one I came up with. A few fake orders to leave them alone to heal and the hobgoblins, at least the few survivors, accepted it.

I quickly had forces teleport in and loot Dalagar's Dagger, the massive peak that serves as the center for a dragon's graveyard. I left the treasure untouched since ghost dragons were a real worry. The far greater treasure for me was the countless dragon skeletons that were over fifty feet long. I had plans for them.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

As for the Blood of Morueme, I intend to keep them. I'll keep the patriarch and probably one of the younger female dragons. Have him act truly paranoid. Constantly creating more defenses, building up more forces and slowly expanding to accommodate them.

Morueme, as the dragon will rename himself, won't trust blue dragons anymore. Not after being forced to kill his parents and then being betrayed by his sons. Instead he'll focus on draconic creations that he can control but are still related to him.

The first is a drolem. But not a normal one. Using Tulrun's knowledge it was easy to take a juvenile blue dragon, restrain him and convert him directly into a golem. Using a perfectly intact body with zero decay had a number of benefits. First it was much tougher than a normal construct, about fifty percent tougher. It was also cheaper, costing about a fourth less. Finally it still looked alive.

I pushed further though. Using teeth from a dragon you can create weapons that retain echoes of their energy. So blue dragon teeth can emit sparks. Drolem heal when exposed to electricity. Carefully removing several scales and then grafting small shards of the fangs to the inside lowers it's health, but provides it with constant healing, I place exactly sixty needles in the skin, leaving it slightly more fragile than normal drolems, but fast healing forty. Four rounds to fully heal makes any battle of attrition very iffy.

The next step is to rebuild the hobgoblins numbers. I'd wiped out the majority of the adults and all the males. Which is a good thing since the females are only going to be giving birth to half-blue dragons from now on. Within a decade there will be enough of them to sustain themselves. Although I'll likely have them conduct raids to capture more females periodically.

To provide magical support I add nagas. Not the ones I've created, but normal spirit nagas. Well spawn and half-blue dragon, but at least they only have one head. They can also twist people into nagathas, which means I have a reason to capture male hobgoblins and orcs now.

I'm not really sure why the never kept goblins as slaves before but I added them in. Otherwise too many of the hobgoblins will be distracted doing the menial jobs and I wanted all the warriors I could get. Besides they're too terrified of the nagas to ever rebel.

Since I was partially rebuilding this place in order to add it to Ascore's trade routes they needed to be more than just self sufficient. They needed trade goods. So I give them gem scarabs.

I also have a team of bone nagas mass producing augment crystals, both for sale and to equip the hobgoblins. The used being used are set up to only work for dragons. It still feels wrong that putting restrictions on magic items makes them cheaper. Maybe the new Mystra has a hard on for security systems?

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I blame the Morueme. Adding the last few species to the set up reminded me of an earlier idea and suddenly I just had to use it.

There are three species that I had thought of when setting up Ascore. All of them considered completely evil. All of them so violent and sadistic that they're hated by everything. I had used two of them, hags and perytons, in Ascore. The third wasn't used since they didn't fit the whole ship set up.

However it seems leucrotta even live in the desert. Or at least in the broken up plateau that rests in the center of the Anauroch.

I place my new city about around seventy miles west of Doomspire, where the Blood of Morueme are located. I set it right at the edge of the plateau and like with Hoth, carved out a small valley to place it in. And since it's in a desert, it feels appropriate to name it Tatooine.

Like the perytons and hags I hunt down specimens to tattoo and then spawn. The real difference is that leucrotta are much more common so I was able to be choosy, finding one with exceptional physical stats. I then add the chameleon template along with the guardian template. I tattoo them heavily and also make sure one of them renders them sterile. I have no doubt if they spread, it'd be a disaster.

As it was though my leucrotta were incredibly mobile. They are much faster than a horse, able to cling to walls like a spider and even able to jump dozens of feet with ease. Worse they're sneaky. Pass Without Trace, Invisibility and Silence just stack with their natural ability, not to mention the skill boost tattoos I added.

I tattoo their jaws quite a bit as well, adding Sharptooth, keen, wounding and speed. The best addition though is sundering, which improves their ability to shred armor and shields. I also use a Wish along with turning him into a half-fang dragon to increase damage.

Since I now had a decent ground unit, I needed something to lead. It seemed fitting to use a black dragon skeleton. The pealing flesh on the front of it's face fit the closest from what I remember of the dragons on Tatooine. Unsurprisingly, I name him Krayt.

Besides all the regular bonuses I don't do much. I just concentrate on raising all of his defenses since he'll be the closest to the City of Shade when it reappears. Since they're mages I max his spell resistance. I also add magebane to his natural weapons. Then Force for it's ability to destroy force effects. I also add Spell Storing. A custom version that only holds Dispel Magic, but also empowers it when it's cast. Along with a Spellblade enchantment for the same spell.

Since dragons are a bit more common in the Anauroch than elsewhere I add dragonbane, defending and truebane through an Might Fist tattoo. Finally I add Earth Glide. Not just the ability to burrow, but to seamlessly slip into the ground move about. Since I wasn't going to have him flying around, Krayt needed a different mobility advantage. And I planned on dimension locking the entire area.

Despite how much I invested in his natural weapons I considered the spell selection of his bone nagas far more important. In fact he had eight of them, instead of six, drastically lowering his fast healing in return for more spells.

I wanted all of them for one specific spell. Whirlwind of Teeth, which created a massive column of shredding blades was thematically glamoured to look like a Sarlacc rising up and swallowing the entire area. It worked even better since I created a number of shredstorms and then glamoured them to look like floating sarlaccs. I added a Flaming, Wounding and Corrosive enchantment to boost it's damage and finally a Smoking property. The smoking was changed to look like a blend of leaking digestive juices and sand being whipped around it.

Needing a race that can craft, since this place was going to be trading with Ascore, I decided I needed Jawas. Which meant one of the smaller races. In the end I stuck with what worked and used the same xvarts I placed in the Tortured Lands.

They made for perfect jawas. Small, high pitched annoying voices, not very well organized.

Wanting to give them sandcrawlers I hunted down a young dire tortoise. I proceed to cover him in tattoos, focusing on raising his constitution and saves. Plus a sustenance enchantment. Once finished I feed him to a deepspawn.

I used divination to check, but it's still a relief when I successfully age him until he's the size of a large house. I make sure the next spawn has a lot more tattoos, things inscribed on his shell that'll survive a transition to a skeleton and that focus on improving his defenses.

I also add as many templates as I can. In particular half-brown dragon for immunity to acid and the increase to strength. Lightning might have been better, but wouldn't make as much sense. I even use Wish to push it's strength further, sacrificing senses, fertility and other things it won't need in return for greater strength.

That plus an Enlarge tattoo creates a perfect creature to house a small village of xvarts. The gigantic tortoise has an eighty foot shell and stands almost fifty feet high. It's animated and controlled by a single bone naga, disguised as a nearly mummified xvart sitting on a throne.

The xvarts don't truly patrol, after all their massive mobile dwelling moves very slowly. No, what they do is serve as transports. They maintain a number of small outposts, stocking it with supplies, as well as serve as mobile emergency supply depots.

Not that the xvarts are helpless. Each of them wields compound heavy crossbows the same size as themselves. And while they needed a stand to use them, it was worth it since they dealt 3d6 damage. They didn't really need a high rate of fire when they had ample cover under the armor the tortoise was sheathed in.

To rule the xvarts I need more that just a dragon. Both them and the leucrotta are too chaotic to keep themselves organized without a firm hand guiding them. To help I add tusken raiders to the setup. In particular I used a Tuigan that was skilled with a lance. Create a dungeonbred rothe, grow it back to large size and then use Wish to tweak it a bit more and I even had banthas!

Raiding parties of tusken raiders, moving in single file, comprise my farthest reaching patrols. Since they're dread warriors, all they need to do is keep the banthas fed and occasionally restock on arrows. Although unlike the leucrotta, they don't venture into the Plains of Standing Stones since they can't climb very well.

All of that leaves me secure on the ground. Now all I needed an air unit.

Foulwings had a large number of disadvantages compared to most flying creatures. They were slow, violent and drank blood. Their bodies weren't even usable as a resource. All of that paled before a single fact. They were large.

Not just normally large, but wide and squat. Their toad-like shape meant their torso was by far the largest of any flying creature I've seen. Which makes them perfect transports.

Using trolls it isn't hard to create a small feeding pool of blood. Foulwings are naturally lazy, it isn't hard to domesticate them. And with plenty of food, rapid aging just means they grow faster.

I make them half-blue dragons since I really don't want them to be too easy to take down by blue dragons. As long as I don't use them too openly it should be fine. Like the tortoises, I cheat by just copying a single specimen I enhanced. When finished, they easily match the tortoises in size. Sadly they also match them in speed since I adjusted them to maximize how much they can carry. And aerial targets are just too vulnerable.

Besides, it wasn't like they were needed. Tortoises can carry far more cargo simply because they aren't flying. Instead I intend to use the foulwings as transports. Thankfully morgh take a few days to convert a creature. It gives me plenty of time to hollow out it's torso to create the needed space.

An eighty foot body that was thirty feet tall and fifty wide had a lot of room on the inside. While no doubt I'll occasionally use them to transport xvarts or dread, I plan on stockpiling the majority. Filled with undead troops, they'll be used to simply swarm enemies when needed.

I have vague memories of a number of toad like creatures on Tatooine. And since the foulwing was also kind of toad shaped it seemed only right to use a dire toad. Although since I was planning on turning them into zombies there was no need to hold back.

Fang dragon blood and dungeonbred meant it gained claws, giving it three decent attacks for only a three foot creature. I also copied a lot of the work I did on the gouger beholders, adding the long stinger-like tongue to the toad. Squeezing in other templates like woodling and even some tattoos finished my war toad project.

A foulwing can theoretically hold several thousands of the mutant toads. Sadly that would weigh far more than it could fly with. At least with the toads using reduce person tattoos I can easily fit a nice even thousand war toads in there. Between that, the jump tattoo and the one for featherfall, the toads can be literally rained down on enemies. It's also a nice means of reinforcing my other forces in an emergency or risking anything more valuable.

I still raise both the foulwings and war toads. After all they are decent guard creatures. I also add a third creature that I buy through the devils. An arcanovore, one of the products the zern sell, is a creature able to dispel at well as well as briefly suppress all magic in a small area. Perfect support troops against mages. The only downside is I have to keep them alive to keep their abilities. At least I can tattoo and spawn them.

For trade I decide to avoid magical items. Not need to make them a target when the City of Shades appears. Instead I decide to go with natural resources. Quasi-magical items in a way.

I quickly decide on a range of products. Besides basic ammunition, which I generate with a quiver of anariel, everything I choose is made by simulacrum. Flower oil from felsul trees. Sap from a golden desert tree. Maiden's Hair clothe. And several other items. All from rare plants, but possible to find naturally in a desert.


	32. Opportunist

Chapter 32 Opportunist

It took longer than I'm proud to admit, but I realized that anonymity wasn't the only reason most of my organizations were faring so well. Quite simply, most of them weren't in a position to do anything even if they did care. Even though the Time of Troubles had caused me plenty of problems, particularly with the loss of Essylliss, to everyone else it had been literally world changing.

Few nations were willing to expose too many resources now that they've discovered magic has changed. Everyone is currently experimenting, figuring out the new rules. Worse it's still changing as Mystra goes around censoring mages out some skewed sense of morality and Shar snatches pieces to create her shadow weave.

I had a massive advantage. I knew the rules were going to change and had been preparing for it for over a decade. Even better I know how the rules will end up. Over a decade of running third edition dnd games means I'm very familiar with the rules.

Not that everything is going perfectly. Reality vs game mechanics still occasionally trips me up. But I'm years ahead of any other group or even country.

More importantly it means Thay is currently vulnerable. I had thought the tapering off of their attacks was the sign that they were starting the process of converting to economic warfare. More likely they were too busy figuring out what they can still rely on before risking any resources.

However I don't want Thay to recover. They're frankly terrible people. Worse they sort of break the world from what I remember. Sure I appreciate blood a lot more now, but it doesn't mean I can't see the beauty of nature. I'm evil, not emo.

So I snuck around and snatched up a few red wizards. No one terribly important, but of a decent level. Then I spawned several copies of all of them and have them summon and bind a number of demons. The bindings are fairly loose. Little more than hunting permits with fixed durations as long as they stay within Thay.

I obviously don't have them all set loose at the same time. I do my best to stagger them to appear random. Using dice to determine how many months to wait before triggering the next 'botched summoning'.

The first one I'm happy to use immediately. I gate over a giant ekolid and led it loose in the Surmarsh along with a troll to serve as an incubator. To hide how quickly the swarm grew I also have a timed rune that will destroy the troll in two days. Plenty of time to build up an enormous swarm. I have no doubt that it'll soon empty the Surmarsh and possibly even the city of Surthay.

To give the ekolids more time and to provide a distraction I have a group of spawned red wizards sneak into Bezantur. After my destruction of the Wizard's Reach it was the only southern port Thay still has access too. I have no doubt that if they weren't busy invading Unther, Mulharond would have tried to take the Alaor. After all the heavily fortified island is what allows Thay to control the Alamber Sea.

The group tunneled into the sewers and expands one of the sections. Then using necrotech I construct a colossal fake otyugh. I make sure the fill the giant cavern with rotting organic waste and seed dire maggots, carrion crawlers and actual otyughs throughout. Using a Gate to obtain a century worm should really sell the story that this had been brewing for a while.

I then bind a demon to the necrotech construct and let it loose and watch. It was amazing. The construct tore through the street before climbing out, lashing out at everything around it. A swarm of chasmes accompanied it, protecting the heart of the creature. Although what they really cared about was a hollow filled with troll flesh holding chasme eggs.

As it rampaged freely I had my fake red wizards 'panic' and summon three goristros. They are then conveniently eaten by a chasme and the goristros freed. Between the two groups of demons the city takes more damage than I expected. Not nearly enough to cripple them, but the demons managed to run around for hours before being put down.

Distracted by Bezantur, Thay almost missed the arrival of the ekolid swarm. The one I summoned had made the most of the troll, quickly building up a swarm numbering in the thousands. A quick scry showed the Surmarsh completely empty of animal life. The ekolid was smarter than I anticipated. Not that that's a bad thing.

Surthay is little more than a shantytown that sprang up around the largest structure in the area, an impressive set of docks. Thay never invested more since their invasions kept failing. As such the city only had a tiny garrison and no defenses. After all no one ever attacks them.

Which is why the ekolid swam managed to overrun the entire city in only a day. Hours later they're heading south and deeper into Thay in a vast cloud numbering nearly twenty thousand. A few hundred stayed behind to keep implanting the few survivors and watch the larva. In a day or so a second wave of several thousand would head out.

Honestly it was much more effective than I was comfortable it. An entire city destroyed in a day and the swarm broke up once they were on the plateau that houses most of Thay. I was honestly worried at first that they might even win. At least until I saw a single group of circle mages wipe out a thousand ekolids with a single spell.

Taking advantage of the chaos I gated in all of the groups I had been saving. Anywhere I found a large arcane lab I 'freed' a few demons. I was also able to collect quite few bodies. I really want access to circle magic.

Seeing how effective circle magic is in the hands of archmages I decide to hold off on the next phase. I originally planned on having my organizations pick at the edges a bit. Not doing a whole lot, but just establishing their presence. I think I'm going to hold off on that now.

Which means I need another means of hurting Thay.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Fortunately, and I'm not really sure if I should thank Tymora or Beshaba for this, Thesk is perfect. They had just survived an invasion that was supported by Thay. They had been dealing with Thay's patrols for decades. And they had even lost two cities that Thay had conquered.

While all that gives Thesk plenty of reason, they did recently fight off an invasion. However the zhentarim just so happened to leave behind a thousand orcs who were currently trying to integrate themselves into society.

Thesk is fairly corrupt and it wasn't hard to raise an army. One which makes a term of service a requirement for the orcs to serve before being granted citizenship. After all they never got permission before just deciding to stay. They could even be considered an invasion, albeit a polite one.

Given the offer of land near Tammar, and thus conveniently between the rest of Thesk and Thay or the newly arrived blue dragons, the orcs rushed to sign up. Supported by Servants of Kethid and a few other mercenary companies the attacked Nethentir.

The cities defenses hadn't been helped by me summoning a handful of kelvezu to assassinate the strongest mages. 'Officially' the work of one of their own attempting to take over. Just with horrible timing. To make it more believable they struck at the sister city of Nethjet as well.

With their defenses sabotaged, Nethentir fell within an hour. The army thoroughly sacked the city before leaving. Nethjet was across a lake, it would have taken too long to mount an assault. Thesk was satisfied with the loot and having managed to strike back at all after all this time.

I even dug up a few graves in Rashemen, gathering high level berzerkers. Wearing identical masks made in the same style as the ones the Witches used they were divided into raiding parties. I disguised the magical tattoos I added as the tribal runes they normally cover themselves in. In particular I made sure to focus on spell resistance and other defenses. Although they did also have a number of passive skill and ability score boosts.

For equipment they wore mostly the traditional clothing, furs and armor of Rashemen. I had plenty of materials after all. Only their weapons were different. Every single one of them had a magical weapon with the magebane property.

It took time to create them, time in which Thay managed to finish wiping out the demons and start rebuilding Bezantur and Nethentir. Which is fine. I wanted this to seem opportunistic, not coordinated.

Then I started slipping raiding parties made up of around twenty berzerkers into Thay. They were clearly on suicide missions since they had runes that they could trigger to blow themselves up when captured. The runes also destroyed the bodies if they died.

Unlike the demons though, the berzerkers could sneak around. They'd wipe out patrols and outposts. Raid for supplies and otherwise cause problems. The fact that Thay's own crude mythal prevented anyone from tracking them down magically made them virtually unstoppable.

The best part is Rashemen can honestly claim to have no knowledge of them. Any truth spells will just confirm their statements. If they're lucky, while investigating they might even discover that they've been infiltrated. I'd manufacture evidence to help, but I honestly don't remember much. Only something about evil witches.

Oh well. It wasn't like they ever left Rashemen anyway.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Adventurers tend to be among the highest level beings in this world. It's why I had standing orders that any adventurers that my forces encounter have their bodies preserved. Most I discard. Too low level.

In fact I had to change my orders because of how many bodies with only a few levels were being stored. Now they had to meet certain conditions. Most of them just surviving against a certain number of creatures. Others are certain actions like casting a spell over third level, any kind of teleportation effect and several others.

It helps that my scrying network has grown so much. I can afford to devote portions of it to monitoring my bases. Of course as I built up a stockpile of 'saved' adventurers I made the requirements tougher. The Tuigan in particular had raised the bar. Since them, Tulrun and the dwarves I dug up had been my only new additions. Which is why I was so surprised when I got a notice that a potential new candidate had been collected.

From the report the woman had demonstrated a range of abilities. Incredibly high strength, an area effect blindness ability and the ability to cast both druid and arcane spells. It was an impressive spread that showed she was versatile. Which might be good simply because I have a tendency to focus on specializing.

However when I saw her, she was not what I was expecting. A half-blue dragon nymph. I did explain the range of abilities though. All she had to learn was some arcane magic. The rest was innate.

Not that I'm complaining. I've already killed and started using copies of a dryad. I've also done the same with a unicorn. A nymph doesn't make me feel nearly as bad in comparison. Especially when she attacked me first. Or rather one of my bases.

I'm not really sure why she tunneled up only to attack one of my ant colonies in Dathomir. I have no idea why she was in the Mere of Dead Men. Maybe she was lost? Except she had tunneled right into the bone pit. Bad luck?

It didn't really matter I suppose. What did interest me was the reactions of the surviving kobolds that were with her. They demonstrated an almost fanatical level of devotion. Looking through their memories, it seems they revered her, seeing her as living perfection. All because her beautify had been powerful enough to distract them from their hunger.

It was an interesting concept and one I decided was worth testing the limits of. I start off with nymphs since the entire premise is based off their attractiveness. However the dragon blood gave her a lizard like appearance. Which means all I really need is nymph blood.

So I hunt down a halfblood yuan-ti. I'm very selective, covertly testing several of them until I find a female who meets my requirements. It's one of the few times I'm grateful that the Serpent Hills are as densely populated by yuan-ti as they are.

I use one of my dragon skeletons on a fake attack retrieving her. As a favored concubine no doubt they'd try to track her down otherwise. Stuffed with explosive nodules and delicate disks as well as covered in explosive runes the dragon vaporized the palace he was assaulting. And since they had a ssvaklor dragon guards it shouldn't look too odd.

I had three requirements. The first was a charisma score of over twenty. After all I didn't want to start with a base that was less attractive than a nymph. The second was a cobra style snake head. I planned to alchemically infuse rattlyr dragon blood into her and the fewer large physical changes needed the better. The third was that she needed to be at least fifth level. Since Scaled Beauty, the nymph I whose body I had, was fifth level, using something weaker was just as bad as something less attractive.

Which brought me to the halfblood, whose name I didn't care about, with a wonderful charisma score of twenty five and an amazing thirteen levels in bard. I really hit the jackpot with her.

I first fed her to a deepspawn. While I had experimented on several other yuan-ti, I really didn't want to take any chances. Soon enough I added the half-nymph and half-rattlyr dragon templates to her.

Seeing the oddly still-gorgeous woman covered in very small fine scales and with a cobra's head I was extremely satisfied. As she was to be the leader for my next project I load her down with tattoos. And since she's supposed to be socially oriented rather than simply tyrannical I make sure to include plenty of skill boosts and charisma boosts.

Partly in honor of the the woman to give me the idea and partly because kobolds are very unimaginative, the group ends up simply called scaled beauties. Which I really should have expected from a race that doesn't mind being treated as clever pets. Rather than mind, they seem to enjoy it. At least if they fanatical devotion the original Scaled Beauty received is any indication.

Since I've been working in the Anauroch recently I even know exactly where I want to place them. The Plains of Standing Stone is a rocky plateau in the center of the desert. It's bitterly cold from the harsh winds and nearby glacier. Life is really only found inside the small sinkholes and crevices found across the area.

The real issue is that while most life is fairly small, there are always exceptions. And while things like giant scorpions aren't a problem, the numerous clans of hill giants are. Worst of all are the leucrotta, who freely rampage throughout the entire area.

I had to keep the kobolds baseline since dragon blood heavily influences behavior. I wanted them to be followers, not competition. Towards that end I equip them with two weapons. Shortbows and shortspears.

The bows are due to materials, their small size and ease of use in their environment. Most importantly it was because I can provide them endless ammunition. Custom quivers of anariel can meet all their ammunition needs as well as give them something they can sell.

Spears are for a simple and insidious tactic. The Shrink Item spell causes an item it's cast on to literally shrink down to a fraction of it's normal size. All the kobolds need to do is create a spear four size categories too large, cast a permanent Shrink Item and when needed brace it and undo it. The four foot spear will grow back to it's full length of over thirty feet, completely punching through everything in it's way.

Shrink Item can also be used in conjunction with traps. Caltrops, bear traps and even simple spikes are so much deadlier when they can change size even when inside you. It shouldn't take long to make everything leave them alone.

Despite their weapons I still train them primarily as sorcerers. I even make sure to set up a reward or a nymph's hair vest. The charisma boost will improve their spellcasting as well as serve as a status symbol.

Just in case though I add another creature, dire weasels. Serving as both mounts and war beasts dire weasels are formidable when fought in the cramped tunnels kobolds tend to favor. They were also ferocious enough to give both giants and leucrotta pause.

I do have to use a few Wishes to get them ready for their role. I already turned them into half-fang dragons. The Wish further improved their bite damage as well as integrated the fang dragon's ability to drain vitality with their own blood drain. I also improved their ability to climb so the broken landscape doesn't present any problems for them. Finally I added the guardian template. Although I leave out the modification that causes their eyes to glow brightly.

For an aerial unit I had something special in mind. Before I had gone with dire weasels I had considered using spectral panthers. In many ways they were much better. Faster, already able to climb, dealing more damage and even able to turn incorporeal.

The problem was that there was chance they were created by Shar, which means I'm not going anywhere near them. Sure I'm willing to oppose the Shadovar and that'll definitely put me on Shar's radar, but I'm in no hurry to draw her attention. And the Shadovar are simply too dangerous for me not to oppose. Same with the Imaskari, who I probably should also start preparing for.

Still the concept of spectral panthers did give me an idea. I had avoided using the shadow template for creatures for two reasons. The first was because deepspawn can't copy them. The second and more important reason is I didn't want them coopted by the Shadovar when they appear.

But if I could twist that part of them? Make it so that like undead they crave what feels familiar. Then I could have species that will instinctively hunt Shadovar.

I decided to use blood hawks as the base. They're small, fast, hunt in packs and are already incredibly aggressive. I use plenty of Wishes, making them just a bit faster, their talons and beak a touch sharper. I then add fang dragon blood, but use another Wish to keep their feathers, although the feathers end up scaly.

Then I pour shadow energy into them, granting the shadow template. I experiment a bit and settle on damage reduction. It'll make them much more dangerous as my perytons had proved. And since it's bypassed by magic, I also add the spellwarped template.

I use their pack instincts along with their new natures to adjust their behavior. Dragons are seen as competition, but not prey. Which will allow them to be tamed by the nymphs. The Cult of the Dragon and Tiamat's church may end up gaining some I wasn't worried. Their bloodlust, independence and territorial instincts means they're not too much besides as guards. I also successfully used their shadow nature to make sure they view other creatures with ties to the Plane of Shadow as delicious.

To make sure they don't lose their instincts from lack of use or being bred out I also provide them with appropriate prey. Plaguespewer undead are mindless giant undead with the ability to magically generate real swarms of rats. Infused with shadow energy the rats were touched with the same, gaining the dark template. Interestingly enough, the rats already seemed to hate shadow creatures. Something picked up from the undead that spawned them I'm betting.

Not that it's a bad thing. I cripple the plaguespawers, cutting off all their limbs, before chaining them up in random areas as food generators.

Rather than a large settlement I split up the kobolds and scaled beauties in a cluster of smaller fortified outposts. Festooned with traps, mundane and magical, it was practically a death trap of a maze. Especially with all the fortified chokepoints they added.

To help them model their living area I gave them a delver simulacrum. The slime was carried in buckets over to wherever they were working since it couldn't fit through the small tunnels. And since nymphs naturally get along with all natural creatures I add watchspiders and giant bees. Besides additional guards they also provide resources to use or trade.

Although after my work with Tattooine it does seem a bit odd to let this place be so heavily dependent on magic items. And remembering the phaerimm just below I decided I needed more. Besides adding spellwarped to the dire weasels I also started planting sussur trees, which feed off magic and generate natural antimagic fields.

Spread across a vast area, they'll be a nightmare for either of the two magic dependent races to face. Plus their control of so much territory should also provide a tactical advantage when staging my own counter-assaults. More than likely they'll be deemed not worth the enormous effort required to wipe them out and ignored.


	33. Maginot Line

Chapter 33 Maginot Line

Seeing how well I did on clipping Thay's wings I definitely want to do at least as much against the City of Shade. After all they'll be trying to establish themselves and I know several of the events that happen right after. Timed right I might even be able to destroy them.

Not that taking on an entire city full of archmages will be remotely easy. I'll need overwhelming force in order to have a real chance. Especially since I don't know how long I have. Likely the best I'll manage is to weaken and contain them.

Looking at a map and seeing how my bases are organized I notice that several of them form an almost straight line across the Anauroch. Starting from the Far Forest and stretched most of the way across the desert and pointing towards the Border Forest.

It wasn't something I was willing to pass up. I was going to leave the Border Forest alone for a bit. There was just too much attention there for me to move freely. The Zhentarim seem to be locked in some kind of covert war against the local fey and a tribe of lycanthropes. Additionally an entire dwarven army was waging some kind of campaign in the mountain right next to it.

However disregarding the forest, there is a fairly large gap between the Plains of Standing Stone and the edge of the Anauroch. And it just so happens that a prime location right in center of that gap. Azzirhat.

A large outcrop of stone that's been heavily fractured over time, it's more of a collection of jagged spires and deep crevasses now. It's also the home for an enormous laerti colony. They've burrowed down and expanded the crevasses over the years, turning them into vast caverns connected by a network of tunnels.

The place is easy to clear out since fog spells sink. Flooding the chambers below with Cloudkills, Acid Fogs and Freezing Fogs quickly killed the majority of the inhabitants. What was left didn't stand a chance.

It was interesting clearing out the place. It was obvious the laerti had taken it over. Large portions of the top had been meticulously converted into a vast sprawling complex. The edges were clean and rounded and surfaces were perfectly level and smooth. In contrast the bottom layers had been crudely hewn into rough caverns and winding tunnels.

Sadly my first choice proved impossible. I'm not sure what kind of bargain death giants made to acquire their abilities, but it made them unusable to me. Soulless husks aren't exactly usable, not when I'm forced to use half grown kids. The only thing I could use them for are undead and that'd just be a waste.

Thankfully my second choice didn't have similar problems. Shadow giants, despite the name, were not extraplanar. Which meant deepspawn could copy them. Or at least their young.

Even better shadow giants are natural assassins, which fits in perfectly with my plans. And while they're normally solitary and paranoid, it isn't hard to change that. I happily abduct a few and proceed to cover them in tattoos. Sure their long lifespans mean they'll spread very slowly, but it also means I will eventually have one of the largest concentrations of giants on the continent.

Planning ahead I make sure the child is female. After all incest will take generations to show any affects. None of my plans stretch long enough for that to be a factor. Although I make sure the girl isn't related to the sole adult male I have in charge.

With the shadow giants I now have the leaders I need for the rest of my idea. I plan on accomplishing two things. The first is to turn Azzirhat into a death trap. The second is to establish an army of assassins able to fight the shadovar forces with similar tactics.

Night Twists are an odd magical tree. It spreads incredibly powerful curses through a song that can be heard for dozens of miles. Since they normally grow in swamps I plant each sapling in a raised platform that holds a large pool. The platform is places so that the tree can use it's bursts of wind to push people off the side. After all since it's being constantly fed it doesn't really need victims.

I plant dozens of the trees across the complex, even going to far as to expand it until it circles all of Azzirhat in order to maximize coverage. With nearly fifty trees, anyone close enough is very likely to fail at least a few saves against their song. And with each tree placed in their own tower, with layers of defenses below it'd take an army to destroy them all.

Each tree is protected by a bone naga commanding eight crypt chanters. And to keep them in theme the four watchghosts were made from harpies. Normal ones, not the ones I used in Korriban. They aren't overkill considering they might have to fight off dragons at some point. Which is why I also added a shred storm construct that was enchanted with greater wounding causing anyone damaged to lose a hit point every second.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

With the death trap portion of Azzirhat finished, it was time to move on to the assassins. Which is why I'm also layering silencing wards throughout the complex as well as expanding it to include the areas the laerti had constructed. The wards will keep the other races from being exposed to the various sonic attacks. At least in the deeper levels.

Not that sonic attacks will be much of a problem for my main race. Since they don't communicate using sound. I've played around with elves already, but not with the other races. And halflings might just be perfect. Or at least one type of halfling.

Ghostwise halflings are naturally telepathic. Sure their range is relatively short, but it's hardly a much of a drawback. And going about under a Silence spell is hardly one once I use parts of the guardian template to add tremorsense and scent to the halflings.

I also add another vital ability. The desert sands are bare of any cover, which means they need to be able to do without. So using a touch of shadow giant's blood and parts from the Shadow Walker ritual I created a new ritual that grants a non-extraplanar version of the Dark template. Which is important since my plans need them to still be viable targets for a deepspawn.

Like most of the civilized races the halflings don't have any real instincts. They're minds are easy adapted and altered into new patterns with Mindrape. And it isn't hard to organize it in such a way that they'll indoctrinate their children into following the new path I laid out.

Under the protection and guidance of the shadow giants the halflings study to become rogues, assassins and shadow dancers. I even hunt down and steal knowledge of how to train to become a ninja from the Shou.

Like in most of my bases I intend for them to compete with each other fiercely. All of them striving to be the very best warrior and assassin possible. All so I can create the most powerful dread warriors possible.

No doubt the tattoos I use will be customized for each halfling that is chosen, but one I know they will all use is Might Fist with Smoking, modified to look like a small whirlwind of sand. Paired with Pass Without Trace it can be used to appear as if they popped out of the ground.

An impression supported by the fact that I seeded burrow roots throughtout the area. Set at intervals of every five miles I place small stone towers. They're simple affairs, little more than a stack of three rooms. The bottom one holding a bound troll to provide blood for the burrow roots. There weren't any entrances, but small drains leading outside to allow the dripping blood to seep out along with a vermin repelling ward.

The top room serving as a way station for the halflings. It was completely sealed, using a phase door to restrict access. There wasn't much inside, mostly having extra ammunition and trail rations. However it was a safe location to rest.

The middle room had very large windows and served as a nesting site for feral harpies. A Sympathy spell ensured they stuck around even more than the fact that the patrols would drop food off.

To work with the halflings I use another telepathic race. Ambush drakes act more like wolves than dragons despite their heritage. Adding fang dragon blood makes them power partners and with a few Wishes, their body was easily altered to have them fall more in line with the capabilities of their true dragon half. In particular their base speed was raised to match an equivalent sized fang dragon, even if attacks and other capabilities weren't.

Of course no matter how powerful their partners are, assassins aren't suited to face enemies head on. Which is why I also needed sword fodder.

For which I picked deadborn vultures. They had recently started appearing in the Cormanthyr forest and after checking over them carefully I was satisfied they didn't have any ties to the drow that created them.

They aren't terribly impressive. Even with aging and growth enchantments they still never become truly powerful. However the fact that they turn into intelligent zombies when killed presents a powerful opportunity. Sheer numbers can make up for the lack of magical tattoos, the fact that they're trainable and loyal is far more important to me.

The fact that they breed by infecting eggs makes breeding very easy. It wasn't hard to track down a few giant eagles. A few careful spells and I had a female ready to lay a massive clutch of eggs. After feeding her to a deepspawn I now have a great source of eggs and giant eagles, at last female ones.

In fact it's so convenient that I end up expanding on the towers. I quickly add a fourth and fifth floor. The fourth floor holds another bound troll to feed the vultures and harpies. A staff of dread warriors under the command of a halfling watchghost train the vultures and make sure to everything is fed.

The new top level is used to house the deadborn vulture nests where they infect and convert the giant eagle eggs I provide. I also replace the large stone slab I used as a foundation for the towers for a basement. It serves as storage or barracks for the already undead vultures until I have need of them.

It's also the reason I go from three rings of towers to a full dozen. Give it a decade and I'll be able to blacken the sky. All in all I'm pretty happy with how Jakku turned out.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

In the end I decided I wanted a completed line of obstacles more than I wanted to stay out of the mess that is the Border Forest. At least the dwarven army had fallen apart while I was busy with Azzirhat. Now all I have to worry about are the Malar cultists, fey and Zhentarim.

Fun.

Except when I look at a map I'm not really so happy with the Border Forest. Sure it makes a nice straight line, but it's literally right next to the Tortured Lands. It feels like a waste unless I'm trying to take over that entire region and while the Ride is full of barbarians, they generally keep to themselves. Plus they keep the Zhentarim from expanding further north.

No. It was better to keep spreading out my settlements. Which is why I ended up heading south of the forest to the Desertsmouth Mountain range. Not only will to provide a base in a new area, it'll be far closer to where the City of Shade reappears than any of my other bases.

Being close is good. It also puts more pressure on the base. Being that close makes it more vulnerable so it needs to be that much stronger. Which means powerful flying units.

Stupid flying city making things harder.

My first creatures are giant eagles. The very same ones that I use to create the eggs for Jakku. While originally I planned on just using them to create more zombies it seems like such a waste. Instead I heavily tattoo them.

Besides all the normal augments I add very special and incredibly expensive tattoo. It was offensive in nature and casts Cyclonic Burst whenever it's talons hit. The spell was sculpted to affect a twenty foot burst centered on itself. Making the eagle immune to the spell took another tattoo.

The eagles make for wonderful aerial juggernaughts. However the Desertsmouth Mountains are famous for the Mines of Tethyamar. The very reason a dwarven army had gathered. If I was to gather my own vast army I needed those mines to hide them. Eagles can't very well be used underground so I need units to clear them out.

Although I didn't go with the Border Forest that didn't mean I couldn't take inspiration from it. Normally quicklings don't get along with other fey. However the few in the Border Forest have been locked in a war for so long they've become quite vicious. Quicklings fit right in.

I chose to use quicklings as the leaders of my next setup for one primary reason. Quicklings are fast. Ridiculously so. Just their base movement was impressive since they can move twice as fast as a horse. However that is just the most mundane facet of their speed. Whenever they move they do so fast enough that they gain the equivalent effect of a Blur spell.

Additionally quicklings are constantly hasted. But not the normal haste. Theirs is much better. They still only gain a single additional standard action, however if they choose to move or attack the effect is enhanced. Which means if they choose to attack they gain two extra attacks or if they move again they can cover twice as much distance.

It also reminds me that if I want to keep taking advantage of the third edition of the spell instead of the weaker version Mystra eventually forces everyone to accept I need to store it now. Not being allowed to cast an additional spell to keep mages from being too dangerous is bullshit. Especially when the goddess of magic is the one doing it.

Since they have short lifespans I snatch one that's fairly young. Not that it makes much of a difference since I'm going to layer him in as many tattoos as I can fit on his body. The first one being a boost to his speed. Paired with spring attack he can easily pick apart an adventuring party. Especially when I tied a Mirror Image spell into his movement.

I think I'm still influenced by my work on Jakku since I make sure to add a tattoo mimicking a ring of invisibility. Not that it's a bad thing. Finally I add a permanent Air Walk. Since I need an aerial army I plan on everything being able to fly.

Since he's already a fey I can't create dread warriors from his corpse so there's no reason to hold back. I add woodling for armor, red dragon blood to compensate for the weakness to fire and even use some Wish spells. I couldn't go farther though since I needed a deepspawn to still be able to copy him.

Wielding keen, greater wounding kukris the quicklings easily slaughtered everything in the mines. It took eight of them less than an day to clear to first set.

The mines the dwarves had dug are unusual. They consist of massive vertical shafts with smaller tunnels branching out and rooms periodically set along the walls. They aren't very close to each other either. There are dozens of miles between each mine. Instead of single giant complex there's a sprawling network of smaller independent mines. All connected on the surface by narrow roads between the castles built on top of the mines.

Seeing the mine reminded me of Belklin's Fall in Undermountain. It also reminded me of another create that lived there and that I decided to use as my next creature. Vivisectors.

Vivisectors are an odd race. Vaguely humanoid and kind of insectile. They fly around and feed on fresh organs. Their thoughts are very odd too. They think much like bees, except their diet usually ends up forcing them to split up.

I enhance them greatly, adding fang dragon blood then using a Wish to improve their claws still further. I add spellwarped since I plan on pit them against mages. Shadovar for now, but if they do well Thay as well. Maybe even Imaskari depending on how they turn out. I really wish I remember more from those books.

However in compensation I also build in some weaknesses. I lower their intelligence greatly. I have no wish for the ageless creatures to eventually prove a threat to myself. I also speed up their metabolism, which combined with the dragon blood, more than quadruples their flight speed. And since I used minotaur blood to make them larger so they can't even use organs from most races.

Trolls of course are perfect to feed my vivisectors. I'm quickly installing dozens of of them for my rapidly growing population. Taking one of the stronger ones and tattooing him means I can spawn swarm leaders. They can serve as generals and keep the rest of the race in line.

The vivisectors do more than provide me with soldiers. Seeing them provides me with a name for the base. Geonosis.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

The name Geonosis also gives me ideas on what else to add to my forces. Although the first thing I do is add a tattoo of Cyclonic Burst to my vivisector generals. After that though I decide to create a droid army.

Well more like dread warrior, but close enough. I use a gnoll since it fits the look the best with it's tall thin frame and elongated skull. The fact that it barely meets the requirements to be turned into a dread warrior just makes it more realistic.

Using Wish I have a bone and tendon repeating crossbow grafted in place of his right hand. I didn't bother with many enchantments other than to have the crossbow. Through a Might Fist tattoo it had distance, force and flaming besides creating it's own ammunition. Add in some custom dendritic armor and I now have battle droids.

Of course ranged troops are still limited if they're land locked. So I created a dropship for them. Or rather took a sinister, infused it with both the woodling and half red dragon templates to make it more durable. To preserve it's deflection field, which acts like a force field, I turn them into a mummy.

Then I tattoo it with a large number of defensive enchantments, including some very specific defensive tattoos. Permanent invisible spells. Hamatula Barbs and two Stormshields, which will weaken any acid or lightning attacks that do strike it. Rather than attack, it'll just hurt anyone attacking. Especially after I include Reverse Arrows.

To fill its role as a transport I add a pair of special portable holes. Only three feet across, one was mounted on the bottom of each wing. A fixed device in each can lower what looks like a pair of large mirrors. They were actually permanent Rope Tricks. With two in each portable hole the sinister can transport up to thirty-two people at once.

With transportation available I create a few additional units. Rounding out the my droid army. Pulling up the faded images from my memories I remember a rolling chariot droid and a few other types. Most don't seem worth the trouble. After all they still need to be transportable by sinister.

The first thing I create was simply an upgraded version of my battle droid. A much larger repeating crossbow was grafted to his arm. Large enough that the armor had to be designed with support struts to allow it to be fired. Adding in a Greater Floating Disk tattoo meant I now had my own version the droid scouting platforms.

The third version of my battle droid didn't have any weapons grafted on. Instead it used a version of the mount spell to create a stable, four legged platform. A tattoo to summon a light ballista, along with ones to enhance it with flaming burst, keen, force and exit wounding. A final pair of tattoos to create modified Unseen Servants to serve as artillery crew completes the unit.

I play with several more ideas before noticing a trend. Many of the units in the droid armies are either manned by battle droids or at least use the brain of one. What if I did something similar with an entire vehicle? Not actual constructs or machines though.

Spells exist to summon all kinds of things. Fire, creatures, walls and countless other things. Of all things it turned out to be Leomund's Secure Shelter that proved the closest to what I wanted.

A spell that literally conjures a small stone building I adapted it to instead conjure a metal vehicle. Not that I remembered what star wars vehicles looked like. Well besides the iconic walkers, but I was thinking more of the tanks and other hovercraft.

So I designed my own. While I can't remember generic star wars designs I do remember several Warhammer 40k designs. You can't assemble and paint an entire tank platoon and not remember it.

I don't use everything, but my design is definitely inspired by the Leman Russ. A ten by fifteen foot steel box that forms around up to six people. Swiveling armored cupolas are set on each side, allowing four people to fire out. The trickiest part of the spell was adding in the small turrets on each corner that all held repeating crossbows.

I succeeded although I had to set the spell to only last as long as the caster concentrated. I then create a very custom Fly spell, more of a modified Tenser's Floating Disk really since it had a flight ceiling of fifteen feet, that only worked for my new Summon Light Tank spell. My new Hover Mode spell also was set to last as long as it was concentrated on.

It was odd how the new Mystra seemed to love very specific and restricted use spells. A normal disintegrate is sixth level. One that only works on dragons though is fifth. Narrow it down to red dragons and it becomes fourth level. Although in this case the ease was offset by the sheer amount of weight being moved. A large steel box with four inch thick walls is extremely heavy.

Two last spells that animated a mounted crossbow and a ranged Abundant Ammunition finishes the preparation stage. After all, since none of the weapons are fully automatic I need to make up for their rate of fire somehow. And while four anti-personnel turrets aren't really enough to satisfy, I'm willing to accept they're good enough.

Six of my dread would gather together. One would cast Summon Light Tank, encasing all of them in the vehicle. A second would cast Hover Mode and drive. The others would man the cupolas and activate turrets.

The best part is that this nicely makes up for the weakness of my soldiers. Large armored vehicles should prove incredibly effective against primitive infantry. Only powerful magic or creatures, the equivalent to artillery or tanks, will be able to counter them.

Not bad for disposable units.


	34. Eastern Front

Chapter 34 Eastern Front

Amn's public announcement of a successful colony on Maztica forcibly reminded me that there was so much more to this world than Faerun. In fact if my memory was right, they had pretty much the same continents as Earth. I already know Kara Tur is Asia and Zahkara is Africa, although much more arabic.

While I do plan on eventually heading over, it made better sense to expand easterward first. And while I did take over the Copper Mountains that was geared more for Thay than anything.

I also wasn't feeling too generous towards to Tuigan. Which is why I decided me next base was going to be set right in the heart of their territory. Set a hundred and fifty miles north of the Lake of Mists any large military force will likely to pass near it in order to invade Faerun. They will pass through the territory I intend to control from there.

To hold it decide to use a different theme. Despite my best efforts i'm running out of Star Wars trivia. Geonosis had been my last gasp and I'm pretty sure I missed a lot. So I'm going with anime. And for this I chose bleach. Well at least loosely inspired by. Again, it's been a few decades.

Towards that end I remove the quicklings from Geonosis. Not only did they not really match the whole star wars theme, they fit the bleach one almost perfectly. More so after I add the shadow template for even more speed. Tattoo on Greater Blink, which stacks with Blur and it will look like some of their dodges leave afterimages.

To reinforce that idea I even create a new spell to tattoo on, One that turns them invisible for a round and leaves behind a Silent Image. A much weaker version of Mislead. Combined with one for a very short range reflexive dimension door that does the same and it's very convincing. So what if they can only use it a few times a day? That just makes it even more believable. After all most powerful techniques have limits on often they can be used.

I only arm them with basic kukris. I also leave the tattoos that grant proficiency and keen, but not the greater wounding. I figure anything more should be more personalized. After all didn't the whole thing about swords revolve around personal powers? While I'm not going to push it that far, I do intend to play around with the concept at least a little.

I build the city quickly and with an eye for defense. Massive walls to keep out the mounted archers and isolate the quickling population. Given just how fast they already age it shouldn't take long to set up a stable society. And since their natural advantages are usually enough to get by, I'll pit them against each other in order to force them to advance. I also name it Rukongai, which I'm surprised I still remember.

I even have hollows for them to fight. Well, not really. But giant predatory humanoid monsters in the form of ice trolls. They're much more common in the mountains, but it isn't hard to set up a few deeply buried Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansions and then fill them with ice trolls. With a secure shelter in the mansion along with the underground complex built around it they easily established themselves. And with a steady supply of food with the various fungi, mainly ripplebark, they flourished.

The trolls will make the entire region incredibly dangerous. Not only will they provide a constant threat to unite my quicklings, but they'll also eventually drive out the Tuigan. The only real danger is them uniting into a vast horde and attempting to overrun Rukongai. However I have the perfect solution to that.

Abyssal Blackgrass is a scraggly clumpy grass that is unsurprisingly, black. It spreads in patches, using large networks of roots to sustain the rest of the plant. It also completely prevents natural healing to anyone standing on the roots. Which means trolls can't regenerate where it grows. Even magical healing is weakened, only being half as effective although that isn't nearly as important.

Planted in vast fields around the city, trolls will do their best to avoid an area they believe is cursed. I add a few memories to some of the trolls I transplant to get that superstition started. I also make sure to add plenty of custom wards to ensure it doesn't spread farther than the areas I set up for it. No point sabotaging myself accidentally.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

I built the city in three rings. The center was the heart, where the academies and training facilities were all located. Not to mention an arena. The second was residential. The third was commercial. Unlike the small shops that were found in the second ring, the third ring was devoted to large scale manufacturing, warehouses and other large scale operations. It's also where inns and taverns can be found.

Each ring is protected by it's own massive wall. While it doesn't really do much to stop the quicklings, it does provide a vantage point to engage aerial enemies before they reach the city. It also ensures that the portals in the third ring doesn't automatically allow anyone access to the rest of the city.

The four portals were set at the compass points are were designed to allow for the creation of a trade network. Each portal has a matching portal a certain distance away. The southern one is the shortest, only extending a hundred and forty miles, placing it fairly close to the Lake of Mists.

The other three portals extended nearly two hundred miles. The eastern portal stopping at the shore of the Great ice Sea and the northern portal being placed very near one end of the Icerim. Mountains. The western portal was the only one without a landmark. Instead being placed a far enough distance away from Citadel Rashemar to not be blatantly threatening.

I plan on each portal exit to be held by a clan of quicklings. Aside from speeding up trade, they'll also serve as resource bases for the others. The heart of each satellite community would be a massive compound protected by a Japanese style castle.

Each community also has a large population of a second race. Both to provide tactical diversity and because I wanted Rukongai to be more cosmopolitan. Starting with the central city.

I turned the heart of the city into a massive labyrinth. Multiple levels of covered bridges, twisting branching hallways and secret doors everywhere. The quicklings had no problem with it. All they needed to do was fly to where they needed to go.

For a second race I chose minotaurs. Who else would be able to navigate a maze naturally? While they didn't mind the covered bridges that much, they still seemed to prefer being surrounded by solid walls. So I added a few underground levels for them.

I even incorporated a touch of their blood into the quicklings. Not enough to make any major changes, but I needed that mental mapping ability of theirs. After all the quicklings who weren't spawn would need to live there. And if it made the future quicklings a bit less independent and intelligent, that was just a bonus.

Seeing how skystone is valued I create my own fake mines for the material using an item able to cast Clearstone. Combined with other stone spells and diamond gem scarabs, the north was set for resources. Additionally I set up a deepspawn with a copper aurumvorax. Although I had to use a Wish to make them a single pure metal instead of the weird mix cormanthyrian aurumvoraxes typically come in.

The hide of a copper aurumvorax acts incredibly effective armor against copper weapons. Which means the dwarves can sell copper weapons to the nearby races without worrying about making themselves vulnerable. I also add both azurite and turquoise aurumvoraxes since those gems are partially made from copper. Besides, more resources are always good.

Fitting for the deep extensive false mines I establish a dwarven colony. Comprised of former slaves they were all too happy to accept freedom and join my kingdom. Especially when they found they would be largely ruling themselves. Once their population rises I have no doubt they'll start creating additional mines, which will only benefit me.

The portal to the east had a settlement of Urskan. The humanoid polar bears made for ferocious warriors. However life is hard in the north. They were all too eager to sign up for just the promise of food. Proud and aggressive, they were more than satisfied to serve as a military force. They also got along famously with the minotaurs and dwarves.

I extended a series of caves from the lake side in order to breed fish, crabs and other animals. Kelp filled lakes make perfect breeding grounds for the animals. Also, being by the sea means they can harvest salt for trade. And since they enjoy working with metal I set up a fake iron mine using Walls of Iron.

The south portal was surrounded by alaghi in contrast. While powerful and territorial, they were more like humanoid apes than bears. They also preferred forests so I extended the ones along the shore using fey cherry trees and small canals.

I also added a number of volodni. Their protectiveness of forests and resistance to arrows make them incredibly useful against Tuigan or bandits. And by only transplanting a handful of adults along with plenty of children, they'll be too busy to contest the alaghi for control. It helps that the alaghi were also woodlings. They were practically cousins.

The forest they live in produces all of their resources. With a gentler climate they can grow orchards and set up gardens. Additionally small animals like dire hares and goats can be raised. All that is besides the types of wood they can provide. In particular redwood, duskwood and zalantar, none of which were native, but still flourished in the misty environment.

Since they're going to be providing organic resources I add a bound half-red dragon pyrohydra. The fangs will provide dragonfang weapons. Perfect for use against ice trolls.

The west portal is set in the middle of nowhere. No geographic features standing out to inspire my. Just flat grasslands in all directions. I also had to make sure whatever I placed wasn't aggressive enough to alarm Rashemen.

In the end it was that last concern that helped me figure out what to select. And it wasn't like I hadn't used myconids several times before. It was just the first time I had done so publicly.

However myconids are decidedly on the weak side. So I experiment. I had plenty of them by now so the loss of a few wasn't a problem. Inspired by the volodni and vague recollections of poisonous myconids I create my own version.

However even Wish had limits, but finding them was entertaining. And in the end it was one of Jhesiyra's accidents that gave me to solution. What we came up with was a brand new species. A crossbreed between myconids and phycomids.

Phycomids are an interesting creature by itself. A combination acidic sludge and clump of tall slender mushrooms that glisten with acid. It sprays acid at nearby enemies which also infect them with spores. The spores grow inside and can kill and convert the body into new phycomids in less than a minute.

After a bit of work I had an amazing new creature. My new myconids combined the spores and acid with the acidic gas that green dragons breath. Resulting in the ability to constantly shroud itself in a large cloud of corrosive mist laced with spores.

It wasn't very powerful, only dealing a point or two of damage every round, however the cloud was also poisonous, automatically causing all wounds taken to start bleeding uncontrollably. The other effect of the cloud was to expose them to the new spores.

The spores grow incredibly fast and were altered to mimic vrock spores. Rather than drain a creatures vitality, the seeds are meant to cause damage. They cause 1d10 damage a round. Which, since it's made up of all the roots spreading throughout the host causes enormous amounts of bleeding.

The cloud was a full sixty feet across, meaning the myconid was completely concealed. Which didn't hinder them since I added blindsight and tremorsense to them. That wasn't their only defensive advantage. Combining the defensive properties of gelatinous creatures and a treant's wooden flesh I made it immune to piercing damage. It was also slightly resistant to the other types of physical damage.

They're still myconids, which means their unique fungal growth potion will work on them. It allows the normal myconids to grow my blood spore myconids incredibly quickly. Unlike normal myconids, they're more restless and territorial, resulting in them preferring to patrol.

Combined with the effect of fighting on abyssal blackgrass, it makes it easy for my blood spore myconids to win any battle of attrition. Especially when they have over two hundred hit points and are immune to wounding. To help them I create a version of twig blight that's resistant to acid and has similar senses to them. The blood spore myconids train them like attack dogs, using them as guards or to help in ambushes.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Pushing further east I set my sights on the Firepeaks. A ring of active volcanoes sitting in the middle of a natural aquifer the area was renowned for it's nearly constant eruptions and the abundance of hot springs.

A small dwarven kingdom called the Iron Men was located beneath them and locked in constant state of war with the orcs and goblins. The surface was another war between ogres and the various kinds of giants. While the ogres were present in large numbers, they lacked the organization of the dwarves. Which is why, despite vastly outnumbering all the different giant clans they had yet to decisively win.

With everyone broken up into small groups it was easy to pick them off. Seeing all the hot springs and finding out the ogres were attempting to create what sounded like a hot spring resort I decided to steal the idea. And what better to live around and manage hot springs than a bunch of nagas?

While exploring I had come across two ha-nagas. The most powerful version of their group of races. Stretching well over a hundred feet, they were enormous and incredibly powerful. I'm just grateful the bone naga ritual doesn't require a fresh corpse. It was so much easier just to kill them and then tattoo the bones.

I took great care to restrict them. Layering instructions, magical bindings and even altering their spell lists using Wish. However I also needed them to be powerful enough to take and hold the area. So like the dragons I cheated. I grafted three bone nagas and a score of necrosis carnexes inside each ha-naga. Making sure all of the bone nagas know Whirlwind of Teeth, they should easily be able to destroy entire armies.

That wasn't all I did. Gating in and mummifying a zern for his skills I had him work together with a dark and spirit bone naga to perfect the nagatha creation process. The ability to twist a being into a powerful, loyal serpentine being was invaluable. Their mentality makes them almost perfect sword fodder if they can be made strong enough. Which isn't hard when I can alchemically change them into half-fang dragons to improve on their combined efforts.

I go all out with the whole hot springs resort idea. I section it off and use different styles of architecture along with features from a waterpark. And since the idea was based around the idea of magical hot springs I create my own.

I have large fountains, clouds of steam, and permanent artificial currents. Area enchantments to inspire hope and raise morale give the place a festive atmosphere. In particular the steam baths have Mindfogs and a modified Symbol of Hopelessness that suggests you relax. The very highest pools are lined with adamantine panels to cultivate adamant algae.

Using pipes and other channels it's filtered into the rest of the complex in varying degrees. After all it wouldn't do to lie when claiming to have magical healing springs. Nor was that the only plant I cultivated for the place.

I attempted to make the place feel as natural and organic as possible. Using ironvine curtains instead of fences and glowvines for lightning. Green air brambles doesn't really help much against poisons, but do clean the air. Which is important with the volcanoes spewing ash frequently.

I also add a number of plants to cultivate for sale. Since the draw is healing the first one I add is fleshshiver mushrooms, which provide bonuses against diseases. And vishma bushes fit in perfectly with active volcanoes nearby. For food and decorative purposes alfengrape vines.

For the deepest areas I also sell air plant bulbs and stoneshroom stalks. Both will allow people stay underwater longer. I even sell small vials of aboleth mucus as a form of extreme water breathing potion, although it isn't labeled as such.

The final plants I sell are ember roots and torchstalk mushrooms. While long lasting torches and extremely portable water aren't needed at the resort, they'll make great traveling supplies. Which makes it more likely that a branch of the Golden Way will extend to the Firepeaks.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

To make it even more likely that the Golden Way gets diverted or branched off I decide to connect the Firepeaks to the trade city of Almorel. Instead of a road though I opt to broaden the river, making it wide and deep enough for ships to sail along it.

The race I use are the shalarin. I had run into them in the Sea of Fallen Stars where they maintained a fair size kingdom. They are humanoid and completely adapted for water with several fins and gills. They are quick and graceful while swimming and practically helpless outside of water. Which will keep them from eventually competing with the other groups around them.

The best part was that for all their changes, they still count as humanoid, which means I can turn them into dread warriors. Not only that, their rigid caste system makes it very easy to maintain control of them. A bit of altered history and suddenly they have a complete backstory of a fifth caste which is comprised solely of their leader.

It took altering the caste that provided their rulers, but it was more of a slight adjustment since only one position was changed. The warrior caste on the other hand I had to work on much more. After all I wanted the best dread warriors and while the eleventh level fighter I captured was impressive, I was by no means convinced he was the best they can do.

So the warrior caste competes with each other. They practice against creatures, run dangerous missions and constantly spar. Every year a tournament is held and the winner has a chance to fight against the current model of dread warrior. Win three times and he becomes the new model. It's the height of their ambition.

It wasn't like the warriors were going to be needed. Not with what else I was planning on adding. Like with the perytons and leucrotta I added gargoyles. Well kapoacinths, which were aquatic gargoyles. And after infusing them with fang dragon blood they could even fly. Faster in fact that normal gargoyles.

I also have them constantly creating topiary guardians. Woven from seaweed, they design them after giant octopi. The fifty foot constructs make superb mounts. Especially since they can go on land. They can also be used to tow boats up and down the river easily.

Like with the locathah I decided to use a dragon turtle as the ruler. I only use a single one this time since I wasn't planning on using baby turtles. I enhance it in a very similar manner, although I make sure every bone naga held inside knows a modified version of Incendiary Cloud that resembles steam. Along with invisible Walls of Fire, Solid Fog and Walls of Force that also look like fog, I'm satisfied he can defend himself.

Since I did want my shalarin to at least be able to work with other races I added a few bone nagas to create two specific items. A ring of flying, since they are used to three dimensional movement and can't walk, and a version of a necklace of adaptation that creates a sheath of water.

Equipment wise I provided a bound song dragon to harvest for resources. The shimmering silvery blue scales made beautiful armor that was easier to get than the special coral they cultivated normally. It also provided fangs to create shocking tridents. The three tines mean it takes more material, but the damage boost is well worth it.

I also place a portal in the middle of the lake that sends you to the Lake of Steam. I have it set to only allow shalarin and kapoacinth through. It makes it easy to keep anything from invading that way. Although it wasn't like they would have the numbers to start expanding into the Lake of Steam for several years. Even with deepspawn boosting their numbers it'll be some time before they secure the Lake of Mists and all the rivers that connect to it.

Even then it won't force an expansion through the portal. Bloodfire oozes, Heat Metal and decanters of endless water mean I can create more lakes if need be. It wasn't like I cared if I displaced any more of the Tuigan.

Maybe I shouldn't have bothered making a portal now that I think about it.

Until I have a portal over to Anchorhome or Maztica I'm not likely to invest much attention to it. I had been getting bored of using dragons so it wasn't that much of a sacrifice to send them all off. Kara Tur though was much more accessible.

It's not perfectly the same. There is a definite fantasy twist to things. But how similar they still are to Earth just makes me feel like Ao had been incredibly lazy. Maztica is full of Aztecs. Sure they're secretly controlled by drow and have actual animal races. No eagle or jaguar knights. Instead they have aarokroca and tabaxi.

Even worse though is Anchorhome. Basically where North America is on Earth. Change the race from human to elf and you have the native americans. A bit more violent and insular, but otherwise identical. And Canada is full of literal giants. Cloud giants, so large polite and extremely strong. It's practically satire.

At least I won't feel bad about clearing out a few areas for myself. Honestly it almost feels like a mercy in some ways. Which isn't hypocritical since my settlements will at least trade with others.

Of course there is still the matter of distance. I'm really not willing to travel thousands of miles just to start over. So instead I finish building several of my false green dragons and send them on their way. They can clear out a nice stretch of plains for me and even get started on planting a few fey cherry tree groves. I figure green wyvern drakes will flourish in such an open hunting range.

I also provide them with as many needlefolk seeds as I can gather. Even using Plant Growth on them in order to obtain more. With their rabid hatred of elves, seeding them across Anchorhome should distract the elves away from my dragons.

I follow them up with blue and black dragons. After all there are bound to be deserts and swamps on the other continent. No use putting all my eggs in one basket.

From what little I remember Maztica was one of the places that was either completely destroyed or largely untouched by all the retarded events from the various editions. As such I wasn't willing to gamble more than I had too, yet an entire continent was just too valuable to ignore.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

maztica, amn establish colony

insects, thri-keen (girillon arms spell)

lish tree nuts

termite, cheetah, quickling, abyssal grass, glass garden spell, glass razors

colonies being probed by other groups using adventurers, shar abandons disguise as worthless after retaliation

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

petrified forest

animate object/ liveoak spell (petrified trees, fake, animated, fake ents w/ tattoo), mod plantgrowth to target single tree/grove?, (ravid, eight woven trees)

bi-nou

song dragon, Yuan-ti dragon, cloudkill

fang dragon, fleshgrinding/ravenous

sunwyrm, dracolich

udoroot

thoon, kaorti, rukanyr, skybleeders, farspawn

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**


	35. New World

Chapter 35 New World

Stealing memories from the merchants in Amn gives me enough information to teleport. Well, send bone nagas over to teleport at least. I wasn't too keen on risking myself. But once one of them succeeded, he could just use a scroll of Teleportation Circle to create a shortcut I can use.

It didn't take long to find a desolate set of hills and take it over. From there it was simple to create a new scrying network. I just needed lots of scouts. And maps. Ok. I may have lied about how much trouble it was. At least I didn't have to deal with all the fiddly bits.

Also, my thought that this was fantasy earth was definitely spot on.

It's not perfectly the same. There is a definite fantasy twist to things. But how similar they still are to Earth just makes me feel like Ao had been incredibly lazy. Maztica is full of Aztecs. Sure they're secretly controlled by drow and have actual animal races. No eagle or jaguar knights. Instead they have aarokroca and tabaxi.

Even worse though is Anchorhome. Basically where North America is on Earth. Change the race from human to elf and you have the native americans. A bit more violent and insular, but otherwise identical. And Canada is full of literal giants. Cloud giants, so large, polite and extremely strong. It's practically caricature.

At least I won't feel bad about clearing out a few areas for myself. Honestly it almost feels like a mercy in some ways. Which isn't hypocritical since my settlements will at least trade with others.

Of course there is still the matter of distance. I'm really not willing to travel thousands of miles just to start over. So instead I finish building several of my false green dragons and bring them over. I have them land right in the heart of the grasslands.

Well sort of grassland. Oddly, it resembled savannah more than the prairies I was expecting. Even down to the animals. Instead of bison they had hippos. If they were several times larger, perfectly comfortable on land and behaved like a gulguthydra, literally devouring everything in it's path, leaving only bare earth behind.

The dragons easily wiped out all the elves in the area. It was easy since they had never seen a dragon before. Most of them panicked and the few who attacked died just from the Symbols. And in such featureless terrain left them no place to hide.

Then I changed the terrain. I planted large groves of fey cherry and redwood trees. I used permanent Fog Clouds to water them as well as reduce visibility. I even used Solid Fog spells for inside the groves. Although I had to weaken the spell so that in many ways it behaved like wind. The larger a creature was the less it effected them. Only human sized creatures or smaller couldn't pass through, although horse sized ones were slowed down significantly.

I planned on each grove to be ruled by a few dragons and to serve as a nesting ground for several families of green wyvern drakes. I figure I can scatter a large number of groves in the heart of the continent along with excavating a massive bowl with a large stone spike to serve as a dragon's graveyard. It'll make collecting bones much easier. Especially if I get cut off from Anchorhome for some reason.

From what little I remember Maztica was one of the places that was either completely destroyed or largely untouched by all the retarded events from the various editions. As such I wasn't willing to gamble more than I had too, yet an entire continent was just too valuable to ignore.

The green wyvern drakes will quickly spread and their hunting will thin the elven population. Given the environment I also create large stone outcroppings to serve as nests for blue wyvern drakes in addtion to the few mountains. While it wasn't a desert, the savannah had the exact kind of dry scorching climate they enjoy. I was even able to add some black wyvern drake nests along the coasts.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Dragons weren't the only thing I introduced to Anchorhome. I also scatter needlefolk seeds across the rest of the continent. With their rabid hatred of elves, seeding them across Anchorhome should distract the rest of the elves. They should distract them long enough for the drakes as well as my next race to finish setting up.

The third race I came in the form of thousands of thri-keen. It wasn't even hard to gather that many since they lay so many eggs. Their racial tendency to gather in small bands and ignore everyone else makes them perfect for me. Even more so when they don't even care about their own race. In many ways the thri-keen act much more like groups of rangers or adventuring bands than a single race.

Thanks to the native stinger race the ground is riddles with a massive network of tunnels. Kind of like a prairie dog town, but much much larger. There doesn't seem to be a real Underdark either. Just isolated caves and occasionally a small network.

In such a spartan environment, ripplebark should spread like wildfire. And since I really don't want the seemingly insane stingers to primarily benefit from it, I need another race.

Instead of a single race though I decide to introduce a number of giant insects. Enough to form a complete ecosystem and hopefully replace many of the native species. The giant land hippo whale things especially are annoying since I'm pretty sure they're the reason why there isn't a rich grassland present.

Since the dominant herbivores were heavily plated in armor, but weren't resistant to any type of energy, I enhance the insects I release. Crickets gain the ability to enhance their chirp into a devastating burst of sonic energy. Scorpions could breathe fire. Beetles can release clouds of acid. Spiders can use Charm to lure prey closer. Wasps can sting their victims with lightning as well as poison. And spiders can inject freezing cold venom into anything caught in their webs.

You would think ants would be at a horrible disadvantage in this situation. However the telepathy I gifted them turned into a hivemind, allowing for amazing coordination. Their lack of other powers just meant they couldn't simply overwhelm everything else.

My favorite though has to be the termites. I work the closest with them, improving their ability to burrow until they can chew through stone. I also steal an ideas from several other sources so that instead of working with adobe, they can manufacture incredibly strong cement. And finally I give them all a petrifying gaze like a basilisk.

To offset all their advantages I make them very sensitive to light. Not only does it blind them, but like derro, it actively hurts them. Staying underground won't be an issue for them though. Ripplebark will quickly spread through their tunnels. I fully expect them to quickly burrow deep underground.

Since Anchorhome is shaping up to become a very insect oriented land I add umberhulks. They will expand on the termite tunnels as they prey on them. It'll take time, but eventually they'll form the beginnings of a second Underdark. Maybe I should start calling it Underhome?

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

Seeing the chaotic behavior of the stingers reminded me of a threat I've forgotten about. The Far Realm. Basically Cthulhu on steroids. Insanity and mutations like a mad scientist on acid. And they already had a foothold. Or at least a possible one.

Thankfully for all their danger and power it wasn't hard to track down the kaorti. The twisted wizards depended more on isolation and anonymity than powerful spells or fortifications. Once my scrying network new what to look for it was simple to wipe out the infestation.

Kaorti weren't the only example of Far Realm touched beings. Several times my scrying network picked up hints at something else. It stayed in the Underdark most of the time, protected by the faerezz. However I was often able to pick off the scouts and raiding parties it sent out.

It's also hard to track them down since they seem to act more like an infection than an army. Humans and other races are kidnapped and return changed somehow. When confronted their skin turns red and they swell up and then explode.

It wasn't until I find an outpost that I realized what I'm dealing with. Farspawned mind flayers. As if normal mind flayers weren't bad enough before. Now they can infect people and mass produce constructs.

Destroying the outpost seems to have driven them literally underground for now at least. I haven't located so much as a scout since then. And in the meantime I can play around with the remains.

Most of them aren't of any interest. Even the constructs are way too finicky, with odd requirements, to be work reverse engineering. The exception is the madcrafter. A living factory. Like a deepspawn, but limited to only two types of constructs. It's beautiful.

Well not literally. It's actually quite hideous, with half melted flesh in a slug-like body. Two pairs of stick thin arms jut out amid odd metal piping and glass tanks. And the mouth looks like a lampreys, except without teeth and drooling acid.

A few Wish spells later and I know enough to fall in love with it despite it's appearance. A simple ring of sustenance is enough to keep it fed and producing. It grows all of the parts itself. The best part is the mind flayers are more stable than kaorti. They can be the subject of my improved simulacrum spell.

Since I obviously don't want to let the group ever find out how to solve their food problem I'm more than happy to move everything I have over to Anchorhome. Without large numbers of arrogant wizards the Far Realm doesn't have any presence there.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

There was a large desert between Anchorhome and Maztica. A harsh barren land inhabited by what looked like neanderthals. I'm not really sure why everyone calls them dog people though. Not that it matters.

I pick a spot at the northern edge of the desert, where the dog people avoid because of the elves. There I construct a massive a gigantic arena. I keep it semi-natural looking, making the arena look rough and almost wind carved. Then I staff the entire thing with heavy armored madcrafters.

Since I'll need magic as well I add bone nagas, although I have them operating armored shells shaped like madcrafters as well. Theirs are just a bit sleeker and their arms are replaced by four very long tentacles, for the naga heads. I add yet another variant that lacks any arms at all. It's operated by a simulacrum of the largest summoning ooze I can create, giving it the ability to summon up to thirty large elementals or similar strength creatures.

By far the most common inhabitants though are the two types of constructs the madcrafters can create. Neither scythers or stormclouds were particularly powerful, but with a single madcrafter able to create three a day it won't take long to amass an army of them.

While quantity has a quality of it's own, in this world that isn't nearly as true. They might be able to bring down a high level adventuring band, but I'd take enormous losses. So I need a defensive edge.

The discovery of the Ironwood staff in Nal Hutta is the spark that lets me know what to add. Scouring Constructs are very high level constructs that resemble broken, remains of massive trees. They are also crawling with beetles. They have the unusual ability to share with health with other as well.

I surround the arena with them. Scouring slingers and stanchions litter the landscape, adding to the impression of a ruined wasteland. Liking the theme I have legions of clockroaches manufactured to wander through what resembles the remained of a forest.

I add another creature as well since it fit in so well. While Thoon soldiers weren't worth recreating, nothing says I can't create an imitation. My armored trolls after all already look like people in armor. It's simple to make one using fang dragon blood that looks like it's covered in dull grey armor plates. After all the work with the different armor designs, making one that looks like a Thoon soldier is easy. Then I infest the zombies with scarab beetles.

Sadly they're not too much stronger that the other constructs or summoned creatures. Still, they do add to the feel of the place. I make sure to spread them liberally throughout the arena as guards and security patrols.

Such a large arena was there for a reason. I plan to set up an annual tournament there. Particularly for thri-keen warriors. Drawn to the offering of magic items as prizes warriors across the countries will travel there. And while I sadly can't make dread warriors from them, nothing prevents me from taking a champion, tattooing him and just using the spawn. Sure it's much less efficient, but it's worth it prevent them from being vulnerable to being wiped out by a sunburst.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

To the north I wanted to do something different. After all after working on it for months I've grown bored of insects. So I add quaggoths. The 'deep bears' as they're known are large, aggressive and much too independent to form any kingdoms.

They need more than just savagery though. Fortunately duergar and blood apes have what I need. With two examples it isn't hard to use a Wish to alter the quaggoths with the ability to grow even larger, letting them match the cloud giants in size.

Size isn't enough against cloud giants though. They have magic, tools and organization on their side. And since I didn't want the quaggoths to become civilized, in fact I had made sure only to bring over the more feral tribes, they needed something else.

The hardest part of adding the fang dragon blood was controlling the change so that their fur was what was augmented instead of them just growing scales. Although it does change it to a dark grey, which is actually good since white really stands out. I had another fight keeping the skull from similarly changing, they don't normally bite so it wasn't like they lost much.

I channel their draconic instincts into the berzerk fury that all quaggoths seem to be able to fly into. Along with their latent magic, it combines to push them much farther than normal. All the more so when I add the spellwarped template. By tying it into their rage they can absorb spells to allow them to continue raging long past their normal limits.

That wasn't the sole exposure to magic I add. Defense only goes so far. To provide that bit of extra I add a shaman city, reminiscent of what I can recall that the Dothraki had. A holy place full of shamans that was considered neutral ground and provided a way to settle disputes.

They didn't do too much. After all I didn't want them to become dependent on magic items. So I had them a medallion to each tribal chief. Something that required at least a dozen members. The medallion was was heavily enchanted, providing several powers. The first was a mighty fist enchantment that granted giantsbane, frenzy and keen. The second allow him to sustain a berzerk state without quickly exhausting himself. The final enchantment provides several morale bonuses to all nearby allies when he's raging.

I provide them with a large pool full of adamant algae for them to use in healing rituals. And since one of their main problems will be insects I plant plenty of lish trees. The nuts render anyone who eats them poisonous to insects. Which also includes insectile species like thri-keen and stingers.

To give the city some more security I add several bone nagas wearing the form of quaggoths. As 'shamans' they can provide blessings which are actually contingency spells. They can also do the same with curses. They also command the hordes of zombies that are buried around the city.

Zombies which are actually just more customized trolls. They're much less effective than my version of quaggoths, but have the added benefit of numbers. Tribes rarely number reach even fifty members. Thousands of zombies will simply bury them. And it wasn't like I should need to defend the place very often.

 **O oooo - ooo - oo - o - O - o - oo - ooo – oooo O**

North of Anchorhome is another giant island called Aurune. Like the great glacier and high ice in Faerun, it's mostly inhabited by primitive tribes. And although frost giants are the most common race, like everything else they aren't organized.

In many ways the terrain it reminds me of alaska. All snowy tundra and evergreen forests with a pair of mountain ranges running through it. The main difference seems to be that it isn't physically connected to any other land masses. It also presents yet another opportunity to grab a massive chunk of territory.

I'm not sure what happens to Anchorhome when Maztica disappears. It's one of the reasons I wasn't willing to invest much more heavily into developing Anchorhome. Hopefully Aurune is safer.

I don't even have to do much. With everything on the continent adapted for the cold, and a distinct lack of volcanoes, releasing remorhaz proves devastating. They prove almost unstoppable, the heat they radiate killing almost everything they run into almost instantly.

Sure they won't completely wipe out everything else. Within a few generations no doubt the survivors will adapt and come up with new tactics and ways of living. However by that time I'll be firmly in control of most of the land.

I use wyvern drakes again, this time infusing them with the essence of a deep dragon. Their corrosive gas breath weapon and resistance to both fire and frost makes them ideal predators. I used a false fang dragon to rule, made from Nartheling, an ancient fang dragon that laired next to where I placed Nar Hutta. Apparently he had a problem with my two blue dragons in Thesk. That or he just thought they were easy targets. Either way I gained a fang dragon corpse to use.

Between energy resistance enchantments, bone nagas able to cast Energy Immunity and a necklace of adaptation my false dragon is pretty much unstoppable. Add in the multiple types of damage reduction that requires silver, magical blunt weapons to bypass and he can control all the drakes by himself easily. Not to mention the remorhaz.

Not that he's recognizable as a fang dragon. I took artistic license with him since true dragons seem unknown. I made all of his scales translucent and shimmering. Paired with a Blur effect and the blinding ability of a Prismatic Wall and he was dazzling. At least when viewed safely from a distance. Up close Mirror Image, Displacement, Mislead and other illusions will make fighting him chaotic. Especially since each of his bone nagas has a custom spell that automatically dispels True Seeing.

Since he lacks the vitality draining bite of a normal fang dragon I create my own. I enchant multiple pairs of jaws of the dragon and then carve out a slot in it's actual jaws. Enchanted in a similar manner to a bag of holding it allows for up to fifteen of them to be stored. Each set of jaws are enchanted with Fleshgrinding, Truebane, Ravenous and Wounding.

When my dragon bites a creature a set of jaws locks onto the wound and is left behind. Then a new set is summoned, ready for the next bite. After five rounds, when fleshgrinding ends, each set of jaws returns to the bag of holding, teleporting back. With a tattoo of mighty fists granting speed the dragon can end up having as many as a dozen of them out at a time. They're expensive though, so hopefully won't be destroyed too often.

Not that he really needs to fight by himself. Since I need to make the place as stable as possible I add a tribe of half-deep dragon kobolds to serve him. They will raise, train and ride the wyvern drakes as well as rule the land. And to help them I also provide half-deep dragon halruuan behirs to serve as mounts and war beasts.

To make the land more useful I have a series of caves excavated deep into the mountains. Permanently enchanted slabs of iron with Heat Metal provide the heat necessary for fungi to flourish. They also power forges that allow for equipment to be produced.

Seeing how easy it was to take Aurune and Anchorhome, I wonder how many other places I can expand into? There is Katashaka and Zahkara to the south and Osse somewhere beyond Kara Tur. Who knows what lies beyond them?


End file.
